Life itself is will to power
by SirClaaus
Summary: Continuation of 'Improvisation can take you a long way', this fic follows a VI technician as he deals with Commander Shepard's death and gets in over his head with the most dangerous people of the Galaxy.
1. Chapter 1

**So this is the first chapter to the second part of this fanfic I'm writing. The first part was rated T, but I felt I wanted to get into the uglier sides of the mass effect universe so I couldn't keep the rating. If you've already gone through 'Improvisation can take you a long way', then welcome! I hope you enjoy this part of Nicolas' journey! If not, then I recommend you go check it out. I quite liked writing it, so maybe you'll like reading it!**

 **Everything in this fanfic is owned by Bioware. No copyright infringement intended.**

* * *

A harsh beeping woke Nicolas from a deep sleep. He grunted as he looked around to find the source of the beeping as his eyes struggled to focus. His hand moved his bed sheets aside to reveal his omnitool, glowing orange.

"Huh?" He groggily picked it up and activated the holographic display. There was an incoming call from a withheld number, "Who calls at three in the morning?"

He stalled for a moment before putting the omnitool back under the sheets and answering the vid-call, "This is Baker."

A familiar voice came, muffled under the bedsheets, "Oh, honey, did I wake you up?"

Nicolas pulled the omnitool out to see Jane's face. Her hair was tied back in a not, and ice was melting off her armour, "Not at all, babe," he lied, rubbing his eyes, "How's your day been?"

"It's been uneventful, as usual. We dropped down on a planet to look for geth, as usual. Didn't find anything-"

"As usual," Nicolas chuckled, "God, the council really wants to cover up the Reaper threat, huh?"

"Yeah, but don't worry. I'll find something they won't be able to deny soon enough. Did you receive my present?"

Nicolas looked over the edge of his bed at a plastic crate with candy from all the levo races. He'd received a chocolate bar from the automated dispensing mechanism and munched on it while he watched a vid, "I did! The Thessian chocolate was super good, even if it glows blue in the dark. Was it really necessary to install that once a day thing? Anyways, I have something for you when you get back, since you didn't give me a mailing address this time."

Shepard laughed, Nicolas couldn't help but smile at the beauty in the vid-screen, "It was the only way to keep you from eating them all at once! I'd give you a mailing address, but you know the planets we visit are classified. I can tell you, however, that this particular one is frozen."

"I could tell from your armour," He wanted to say he missed her, if only he hadn't said that every single call they'd made. He feared she might be getting bored of their routine… _maybe we can take a little vacation when she gets back,_ he thought to himself.

"Hey," Shepard's voice went low like a whisper, how she usually did when she wanted to say something cute, "I'll be back next week, so I won't have to miss you for too long."

He smiled and got close to the camera, making himself appear nosy and goofy, "Best piece of news I've received in ages, babe," Nicolas sighed when Jane smiled, her nose wrkinling around the bridge as she did.

"I'd better let you get back to sleep. I've got a report to write. Have you gotten in touch with Garrus?"

"I'm actually meeting up with him tomorrow," Nicolas shifted around on his bed, propping himself up on his elbow, "He's been going on and on about Liara."

"Oh that girl won't shut up about 'big bird', that's what you called him, right?"

"Am I the only one who sees turians like birds?"

"I think you just might be the only one," Shepard teased, "Now go to sleep, or you'll be like a zombie tomorrow."

"Alright, Jane," Nicolas exhaled through his nose before laying down again, "Good night."

"Good night."

…

Shepard closed the vid-call. She massaged the bridge of her nose before leaving her private quarters for the medbay. Karin was sitting at her desk, going through the mission reports of the ground team.

"That Sanchez boy didn't take to the cold too well." Shepard said as she walked in, to open conversation.

"Yes, he's been having a bit of space-sickness, as we call it. His service history is made up of almost only planetside missions," Karin knew that wasn't why Shepard was there, though. She'd been through each of the ground squad's service history several times, making sure to choose good people.

Shepard sat down on the edge of one of the medbay beds before talking, "I just spoke to Nicolas. He received the care package."

"Ah, good. As long as he eats one a day, he should be alright."

Shepard had a worried frown on her face, "That was the last of it, right doctor?"

Chakwas nodded, "Yes. After this week, there should be no withdrawal symptoms."

Before Jane could say anything else, Joker spoke over the comms, "Commander, we have a possible geth vessel on our scanners… they don't match any known signatures… hold on, it's not the geth, BRACE FOR EVASIVE MANEUVERS!"

The ship lurched to the side before an explosion shook the hull. Shepard remembered her helmet being in her quarters and stood to run. She looked at Chakwas and shouted, "To the escape pods, Karin! _Now!_ "

Joker's voice crackled through Shepard's emergency channel, _Kinetic barriers down._

Another explosion made the kinetic dampers deactivate momentarily and Jane fell as if in free-fall towards the port side of the hull.

 _Multiple hull breaches._

When the dampers reactivated, she touched the floor too fast and rolled into a table in the mess hall, banging her head on a corner. She touched her glove to her forehead and it came back red before she felt the trickle of blood going down the side of her brow.

 _Weapons offline._

Wasting no time, she scrambled into her quarters, finding her helmet and dashing back out to the end of the cryo-pod corridor, where the black box and the distress beacon were.

 _Somebody get that fire out!_

She knew the Normandy was doomed if the unidentified vessel had caused this much damage in so little time, so they needed every single piece of data on the attack.

Liara ran along the mess hall as the Normandy swung sideways, nearly making her lose her footing. She found the commander at the end of the deck and ran for her, "Shepard!" she shouted through her suit's speakers.

Jane kept a level voice, her N7 training kicking in, "Distress beacon is ready for launch." She needed to keep her crew in control and focused.

"Will the alliance get here in time?" Liara's tone sounded hopeless.

The Normandy shook again, and Jane turned to hold the asari before she fell over. She caught a glimpse of the scared eyes through the visor and knew she needed to be optimistic, "The Alliance won't abandon us, we just need to hold on. Have you helped everyone get to the escape shuttles?"

"Ashley, Chakwas and most of the crew are in position. I think Joker's still in the cockpit, he won't abandon ship." Liara started to jog down the corridor and stopped when she saw Shepard wasn't following.

Jane cursed under her breath, they couldn't lose the Alliance's best pilot. Her omnitool pinged when the black box download was complete. Stalking over to Liara, she put her hand on the asari's back and nudged her to follow as they jogged to the mess hall, "I don't want to lose anyone, Liara. Make sure everyone is ready for evac. I'll take care of Joker."

Liara stood near the medbay doors as she watched Jane climb into the service tunnel that lead to the cockpit, "Commander…"

Shepard exhaled through her nose. Nobody was getting out if she didn't hurry. She turned around and hoped her eyes could be seen through the visor, "Liara, go. Now," she made sure to add as much finality she could to her tone, and surely enough, Liara turned to leave for the medbay escape shuttle. Joker's voice crackled over the emergency channel once more.

 _Mayday! Mayday! Mayday! This is SSV Normandy!_

Shepard climbed through the service tunnel, avoiding electrified cables and jagged surfaces of the hull that had punctured through the tunnel walls. A containment barrier glowed purple halfway through. Going through it, Jane felt her organs go weightless within her and the noises of explosions go silent as she entered the vacuum of space.

 _We've suffered heavy damage form an unknown enemy!_

Shepard crawled out of the tunnel to see the platform where she used to stand on to look at the Galaxy map. Bubbles of electronics coolant liquid floated around the hull, and she looked up to see the frozen planet Alchera creating an ominous, sterile white glow on everything that faced it.

 _Come on, baby. Hold together, hold together!_

She walked towards the cockpit, careful not to bump into anything sharp or hot. A dismembered torso floated by. Sparing a moment to look at it while it passed, she saw the Navigation Officer badge on the chest. Pressly.

The Normandy was running on one engine while the other three kicked into action for seconds at a time. The mass effect output of the eezo core was virtually zero. Joker was surprised the ship was still holding itself in one piece, so it would be blasphemy to just leave it. He suddenly heard footsteps behind him but he payed little attention.

"Come on, Joker! We have to leave the Normandy!" Shepard's voice came through her suit speakers as she tried turning the pilot's chair around.

Joker had prepared for someone interrupting his piloting, so he had blocked the swivelling mechanism. He wanted to bat off Jane's arm, but he knew he'd break his hands doing so, "No, I won't abandon ship! I can still save her!"

Jane was losing her temper, they had lost too many by that point already. With a quick motion, she kicked the manual locking mechanism under the chair and swivelled it around, "You are the best pilot in the Alliance. I will **not** lose you for trying to protect a ship that's already lost," she stole a glance at the HUD before snapping, "You don't even have two functioning engines!"

Joker gave a quick look over the holo-panels as he grumbled, "Alright. Help me up," at that moment, a warning blared above the radar screen, "oh no. They're coming in for another attack!"

It all happened so fast… a yellow beam of energy shot through the neck of the Normandy. Jane grabbed Joker by the arm, feeling a crack through his skin as the pilot screamed. Ignoring the broken bone, she pulled him up and helped him hobble to the escape pod nearby. Just as Joker had gotten in, the yellow beam cut through emergency power cables and the kinetic barriers keeping the air in the cockpit shut off. Jane was pulled out into the Normandy's neck by the vacuum that formed and her eyes caught sight of the escape pod manual override button. Immediately, she realized she would never reach the pod in time, so she gathered all her willpower and pushed the button.

An explosion slammed her into a wall, dazing her, then another rocketed her into space. Her consciousness bubbled back as she looked around, trying to find an unoccupied escape pod. A hundred meters away, the Normandy finally exploded as the eezo pellet in the drive core overloaded and shattered.

Everything was silent as Jane looked at the wreckage. She tried reaching anyone through any radio channel but no one answered. Her radio was surely broken. A piece of the Normandy zoomed past her, and she groaned between gnashing teeth as jagged ends almost ruptured her suit. A silent explosion occurred behind her, and shrapnel flew her way. All she heard was a soft _zip_ , and her hand was severed off. In a flash, she used her omnitool to cover the stump with medigel when she noticed that there was no air coming from her respirator.

The commander twisted around in the vacuum, trying to reattach the cut oxygen tube to her respirator, reaching behind her desperately. She could hear herself gagging and choking within the helmet until consciousness finally left her and she fell into Alchera's atmosphere.

…

Nicolas looked at the empty crate Jane had sent. He'd saved a couple chocolates for them to eat together when she got back, but at this point, her return was clearly overdue. His energy was somewhat down during those days, and that day, a week after Jane was supposed to return, he called in sick. Hal had been working from Nicolas' desk terminal to keep up with his job's deadline while Nicolas slowly got out of bed.

It was past lunchtime when the doorbell rang. Nicolas put on a loose sweatshirt and pants and hobbled over to the door with a cup of coffee. The holo-screen showed a man dressed in an Alliance uniform. Nicolas' mind didn't find anything odd about it until he had opened the door.

"Mr. Baker?" the soldier or officer or whatever he was asked.

Nicolas nodded, warily, "Yes?"

"I am Officer Hernandez, here to send my condolences on behalf of Councilor Anderson. He-"

"Condolences? Why didn't he come here himself?" Nicolas interrupted, an irritated frown on his face.

"He has had to direct his full attention to keeping the Reaper investigations going. There has been a lot of counterproductive efforts from the rest of the council after the, uh… Normandy incident."

Nicolas' eyes shot open, "No. No no no no no," before the Alliance officer could continue, Nicolas had shut the door. He tore the paper envelope open desperately and scanned it, looking for a name. _Jane Shepard._

"No…" Nicolas moaned as his eyes teared up. He wanted to throw up, so he ran to the kitchen sink, almost not reaching it in time. He didn't know whether he was crying or his eyes were watering from vomiting but he didn't care. Shepard was gone. Hal called from the terminal, asking what was wrong before slipping into the apartment's security cameras. He focused on the paper letter Nicolas had received, spying the name of the commander.

"The funeral is tomorrow, Nicolas. Why don't you call Garrus up or take a nap?" Hal asked over the music player's speakers.

Nicolas wiped his mouth on his sleeve as his sorrow boiled into anger. _Who did it? Why were there survivors? Where is Jane?_ "Yeah, Hal. I think a nap will do me good," he sniffled before heading for the shower.

After putting the alliance fatigues he'd received at the Normandy during the mission to catch Saren, he stormed out of the apartment while putting his omnitool on. Hal asked him what he was doing over the translator but Nicolas didn't utter a word. He jumped into a public sky-car and punched in the address of the human embassy.

…

Anderson sat at his desk with Joker in front of him, looking down at the sling on his arm. The councillor had tried for the most part of the previous night to think of a way to let the pilot know he was grounded, and the easiest way he could come up with was to use logic, "Jeff, I know this is hard, but your tests show that the commander's death is taking too big a toll on you. We both know you're our best pilot, but I can't let you-"

The door to the office whooshed open as Nicolas stormed in with bloodied fists, "WHERE IS SHE? ANDERSON, YOU FU-" he was cut off by two alliance soldiers who tackled him to the ground and restrained him. Anderson stood and ordered the soldiers to keep Nicolas in the office and shouted for Nicolas to calm down.

Baker struggled at first but took a couple of deep breaths before panting, "What happened to the Normandy?"

Joker answered with a voice he was struggling to keep level, "We were attacked by an unknown enemy. Shepard didn't make it out. She died putting me in an escape pod."

Anderson piped in, "Shepard died saving _all_ of her crewmembers, Joker. Nicolas, we don't know who attacked the Normandy. Whoever they were, they had very advanced technology, since they were able to find the Normandy even while in stealth mode."

"I don't give two fucks what technology they had," Nicolas flinched as the soldiers twisted his arm when he struggled, "I want to know where she is."

"I'm sorry, Baker, we can't let you know where her body is. The location of the Normandy's crash is classified, and we cannot send a rescue party into the Terminus without an exorbitant amount of political backlash. Shepard will have to wait."

Nicolas shook his head, baring bloodied teeth from smacking his face on the floor after the tackle he had received, "You fucking spineless alliance cowards!" He was then pulled out of the office as he struggled to break free with more strength. He screamed every curse he knew at the top of his lungs until one of the officers used a stun gun on him and he blacked out from the shock.

He woke up at the C-sec detention centre, soon after he stirred, a familiar face came up to his cell, "Come on, broomhead, you know better than storming into a councillor's office and assaulting two alliance guards," Garrus shook his head, "what were you thinking?"

"They wouldn't tell me where Jane is, Garrus, and they won't go get her. There's no way in hell I'm going to her funeral if the casket's gonna be empty." Nicolas spoke bitterly, his eyes glued to his feet, avoiding Garrus' sight.

"Well, I suggest you go home and get some sleep, or some time to think over things. I can go to your place later today, if you want. The Alliance hasn't pressed charges, so you're free to go," with this, Garrus opened the cell.

"Thanks, Garrus. You don't need to worry about coming over. I'll be fine," Nicolas grumbled as he got up and walked out, tapping his knuckles on the white prosthetic plates on the turian's arm.

…

"Hal, how soon can you finish the VI project?" Nicolas asked as he packed various objects into a duffel bag.

"It's finished, Nicolas. You double checked it yesterday." Hal spoke through the apartment's speakers, over the loud music that was already playing.

"Did I? Well, send it over to the start-up guys and wipe all traces of you from the terminal before getting in the omnitool. We have to get out of here before Garrus inevitably shows up." He said as he checked through the travel crate containing his armour and holstered his handgun on his thigh.

…

Garrus rang the doorbell to Nicolas' apartment, receiving no answer for the fifth time. He exhaled through his nose, annoyed and crossed his arms before inspecting the door. Opening his omnitool, he opened the C-sec program for searching houses with probable cause. Once inside the apartment, he looked around to see it was just like it was the last time he'd met Nicolas. There were no signs of a fight or a binge of alcohol or anything out of the ordinary. The crate Shepard had sent was on the kitchen counter beside the heating unit so he walked up to it. Five levo chocolates with bright wrappers were there, stacked on top of the crate. Feeling there was nothing he could use as a clue, he walked to the bedroom. Looking in the closet, he found the armour crate was nowhere to be found and the door to the gun safe was ajar.

"What did you do, Nicolas?" Garrus muttered to himself as he headed for the terminal for any more clues.

It was unlocked, and a single text file was open. Garrus used his omnitool to translate it into legible characters. _I went to find Shepard, Big Bird. Don't come looking for me._

…

Nicolas stood in line at the dock to get into the civilian ship. The constant buzz of the docks and the smells of cuisine from all over the galaxy attacked his nose and ears as he tried to shut everything off while still keeping enough of his senses about him to not get pickpocketed by the children running up and down the line.

 _Boarding for shuttle Beta-67 to Omega has begun. Please keep your baggage with you at all times._

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 **So yep, that was the first chapter. I hope you enjoyed it! I'll get to work immediately on the next one!**


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2! Enjoy!**

 **Everything in this fanfic is owned by Bioware. No copyright infringement intended.**

* * *

The shuttle reeked of sweat and diverse species of tobacco and the walls and seats had been scribbled on using various alphabets. The children that were running around in the docks were now nowhere to be found. Strangely, they didn't actually get on the ship. Nicolas left his duffel bag above his seat and slid the armour crate under the one in front of him. A bare-faced turian sat quietly beside him and did the same. He noticed no one was playing videogames or watching vids on the screens in front of them or going through their omnitools. Everyone just looked straight ahead or out the viewports.

There was almost no warning before the blast doors closed and the shuttle left the dock at the end of Zakera Ward. As the ship made its transit, waiting its turn to go through the Relay, there was no safety demonstration on behalf of the crew, snacks or refreshments. Nicolas' stomach grumbled and he produced a small nutritional bar from one of his pockets which he was done with before even reaching the Relay.

One by one, the passengers began going to the restrooms. Nicolas looked around to see lines forming along the corridors. When his neighbour got up to go, he noticed the turian had taken his armour crate. Hal recommended Nicolas to do the same once turian entered the restrooms When he himself stood up, he noticed that those who returned were in armour, most of them with their helmets on their laps. Baker entered the restroom once it was his turn and quickly changed into the onyx armour he had stowed away after leaving the Normandy, holstering his handgun on the magnetic clasp on his thigh.

He returned to his seat, nodding to his turian companion as he sat down. Peeking over the seats in front of him, he spied a passenger that hadn't changed yet. Nicolas decided to keep an eye on him. Looking out the small viewport beside his seat he saw the blue glow of the Relay glaring through the plexiglass, taking more and more space as the shuttle drew closer. A moment later, the starry exterior blurred to a tunnel of blue and violet, and after a couple of seconds, back again to a starry void. A PA told the cabin that they had arrived at Omega. Nicolas saw the armourless passenger nervously get up and walk up and down the aisle, asking for an extra suit of armour. The turian sitting beside him batted the nervous human off with annoyance and went back to staring at the back of the seat in front of him. Soon enough, the human walked back to his own seat, shaking from head to toe. Nicolas heard him murmur under his breath as he passed, " _those fucking kids… they took my armour…"_

The shuttle touched down on Omega, and all the passengers stood in unison, taking their luggage out from in front and over their seats. The armourless passenger struggled to the front of the shuttle to get off as quickly as possible. When the blast doors opened, Nicolas walked with the rest of the passengers out and found himself in a dirty corridor. There were no viewports to look out to space through and no police or customs scanners. Nicolas walked with his duffle bag down the corridor and progressively noticed that the crowd was thinning out. Small kiosks started dotting the walls, selling fast food and wares of many kinds: weapons, ship part replacements, omnitools, etc.

Turning a corner, he saw the nervous passenger that had left the shuttle in a hurry. Nicolas walked briskly after him, either to see what he was nervous about or at least make sure he got wherever he was going safely. Rounding the corner, he saw the human moving at almost jogging speed. His once combed over hair was now pointing everywhere and he looked over his shoulder every few steps. A batarian walked past Nicolas, bumping into his shoulder as he went. With a growl, he turned around to address Baker, "This one is mine, human. Stay away."

Now he absolutely _had_ to stay close. He stopped for a moment, watching which way the human turned and following him once the batarian had followed. Staying at a discrete distance, he ended up huddling against the corner of a dimly lit alleyway. He tried listening for any sign of a struggle.

A batarian voice came from the alley, "Hey, human! Yes, you. Stop jogging, it's a dead end up ahead. Say, what are you doing here alone? Mighty dangerous for someone who looks wealthy as you do without protection."

Nicolas frowned and whispered to Hal to ready the aim-assist protocols in his handgun. He peeked into the alley and saw the batarian drawing closer to the human, who had his back against a door, which he seemed to be unable to open. He almost squeaked, "I- I- I have everything in my bag. You can take it."

"Oh, I'll take it alright. I wanted to know what you had on _you._ " The batarian's tone grew more and more menacing with each step he took.

Nicolas stood up and inched towards the pair. The batarian heard him and looked over his shoulder before turning around, a hand hovering over the shotgun attached to the small of his back, "I told you this one was mine, human. Leave."

"You don't want to threaten me, beautiful," he muttered sarcastically, looking between the batarian's four eyes, "I'm in a bad mood today."

"Nicolas," Hal protested into his translator, "we should stay out of trouble."

In one swift motion, the batarian grabbed the handle of his shotgun, expanded it and shot from the holstering position, blowing a chunk off the armourless human's chest before pulling the gun off his armour and swinging it around to point at Nicolas. Before the barrel had lined up, however, Nicolas had raised his pistol and unloaded heavy tungsten rounds in the direction of the batarian's head. The first projectile bounced off harmlessly, but the second went through the shields and into the relatively soft flesh, bone and brains of the alien.

In a moment, all the windows leading into the alley from the levels above closed or darkened, and Nicolas was left squinting, trying to make out what the damage was. He activated his omnitool to make it glow and saw the dead batarian and human. Sighing, Nicolas walked over and croutched down, scanning the batarian's omnitool, letting Hal datamine its contents for credits. He then walked over to the human and shook his head. _What a waste._ He searched the pockets of the dead man's suit, finding nothing. A quick inspection of the wrists revealed no omnitools. Nicolas smacked his lips and looked around from his crouched position when he saw the man's bag. He walked over to it and opened the zipper. Plastic bags fell to the ground, full of various kinds of drugs.

Nicolas turned the bag upside down, letting everything fall to the ground. A small piece of paper fell from the bag, so he bent over and found coordinates scribbled on. After reading them to Hal, he said it was the same door the human was trying to get into. Nicolas eyed the door and swiped his omnitool over it, looking for an onboard computer to hack. He found none and went over it again and again, thinking his omnitool was malfunctioning.

A minute later, Baker scratched his head, looking at the door. Hal spoke into his translator, "Maybe it's just an old door?"

"But that would mean that you could just kick it open," Nicolas crossed his arms, wondering why the dead man would be lead with a bag full of drugs to a door that wouldn't open, _unarmed._

He took a step back and kicked the door where an old fashioned card slot was. The lock gave immediately, and Nicolas walked in, gun raised, not knowing what to expect. It was a small apartment. Everything was coated in dust and every piece of furniture that wasn't bolted to the walls or floors was missing, probably stolen years ago.

Hal spoke over his translator, "I think I know why the guy was lead here. Someone in omega just wanted cheap drugs, so they called him and had someone steal his armour before getting here, rendering him defenceless."

"Good plan," Nicolas said absentmindedly as he inspected the apartment. He tested a cupboard in the kitchen, noticing it was loose. Pulling it out, he found nothing but dust, but he could probably hide his duffel bag there if he dented the back of the cupboard in. He kicked the back panel off and cut through the rest of the material with a flash forged blade before stowing his bag.

He walked out of the apartment and stumbled into the pile of drugs the human had brought. Hal asked, "What do we do with them?"

"Burn 'em," Nicolas replied. He let Hal synthesize kerosene and sprayed the pile before letting a piece of red-hot nano carbide fall on it, igniting the fuel. When the pile was irrevocably ablaze, Nicolas stood idly before the two corpses, deciding to leave them and head for a more populated part of the lawless space station.

"Hell of a first impression," Hal commented as Baker walked.

…

Back at the corridors with stores, Nicolas looked up at the colourful signs against the grimy walls lit an orangey-red by the deteriorating lamps lining the ceiling. A sign read 'Commercial District' in common and Nicolas followed it. The corridor (at that point bordering on claustrophobic) opened up to a five block wide ring stretching upwards into the meteor's body, the outer walls consisting mainly of small businesses. At the center of the ring was Afterlife, a club spanning five stories up and five down the ring's levels. Since Omega had no day-night cycle, the place was open around the clock, and there was always someone willing to get drunk or drugged. Nicolas chewed on his lip, he was in no mood to be sober.

He walked up to the ten person long queue, and he judged the club must be in the lazy hours, since the holograms placed to keep the line contained stretched outwards and around the club. Once he got to the krogan bouncer at the beginning of the queue, he figured being nice might get him a long way; at least longer than being a prick.

"How much is the entrance, big buddy?" Nicolas produced two cigarettes from his jacket pocket and offered the krogan one, which the alien took after a moment's hesitance.

"Not your buddy, human. Its 10, though. Need a lighter?"

"No, I'm good," they both lit their cigarettes and took a couple of drags, until Nicolas spoke again, "These are the down hours, right?"

"Not at all, the club is packed. But almost everybody just got tired of waiting, and patrons have only started leaving now," the bouncer eyed him, examining his armour and chuckled, "New to Omega?"

"Was I that easy to spot?" He took a short drag from his cigarette, "Yes, I am."

"It's too clean, you see. The scuffs are convincing but there's no grime. People around here don't usually clean their armour. Not the outside anyway."

"Thanks for the tip," Nicolas smiled before looking up at the higher levels, "Everything is upside down here. The 'sky' is orange, there's no security whatsoever, and the krogan are talkative."

The bouncer snickered at the remark, "It's a thank you for the cigarette. Maybe you actually didn't _spot_ the security, since they don't wear uniforms. They work for us, by the way. Aria T'Loak runs this town, and owns Afterlife."

"I'm assuming that's something I wouldn't want to forget." Nicolas flicked the cigarette over the platform's railing, down to the lower levels, "Well, it's been nice talking to you, man. Let's see how much fun 10 credits get you in an Omega club."

"Enjoy, human," the krogan nodded as Nicolas walked by to the big two door entrance that lead to a tunnel with bright displays for walls. Patrons sat at the edges on black leather sofas, either talking between themselves and sneering at the newcomer, or slumped over and passed out from a night of intense drinking and drug abuse.

The tunnel opened up to an enormous hall, ring-shaped like outside the club, and from the centre of the ring, a veranda gave an overview of the club's lower levels, similar in shape. Overhead and towards the back of the club was a big balcony overlooking the main level, surely a VIP lounge. Nicolas scanned the first level in search of a bar, and to his right, through the strobe lights and red mist that permeated the whole building, he found the bar, with a couple of patrons sitting at the stools. The tables beside them were at capacity, so his seat would have to be a no-backrest one.

He approached a turian bartender, his yellow eyes almost glowing in the hazy atmosphere and hectic lights that danced across every surface. His face had no tattoos to associate him with any turian family, probably burned off as punishment for a terrible crime, or he never was part of a family to begin with.

"What'll it be, _human_?" the last word was said almost as an insult, the bartender was clearly not in the mood to deal with humans.

"What's the cheapest whiskey you have?"

"Nanus double distilled." The turian snapped and stayed silent for a second before turning to attend someone else.

"Can I have a glass of it, Mandibles?" He shouted at the top of his lungs, making the turian duck his head in surprise before turning to Baker glaring. Nicolas smiled and produced another cigarette from his jacket pocket, "with ice… and hurry, please."

The turian grumbled a response and slid Nicolas a glass _not generously_ filled before storming off. Needless to say, that turian wasn't getting a tip from any human patrons that night. After a couple of minutes nursing his drink, a salarian sat beside Nicolas and tapped his foot to Baker's ankle.

"Hey buddy, I don't know what that means, but I'm not into frog men." Nicolas left his glass on the table and smiled his best fake smile at the neighbouring patron. This was warning one before he'd make the salarian regret bothering him.

"Oh no. The human misunderstands. Offering quality red sand. Cheap!" the salarian whispered. It was the first salarian Nicolas had seen with independently moving eyes. Offering drugs and creepy looking? Strike two.

"No thanks, man. I'm always faithful to my alcohol." Nicolas turned to face the bar and sipped from his glass but the salarian didn't leave.

"But maybe you would want to try-" the drug dealer leaned closer towards Nicolas and touched his forearm, which was batted off violently. Strike three.

"Alright, you fucking tadpole, I said back off. You have five seconds before I shove that sand up your cloaca, so get lost." Nicolas had turned around to face the salarian, whose eyes had focused on the human alone instead of wandering around the club. He got up, nodded once and walked off. Soon, Nicolas noticed out of the corner of his eye that the dealer was talking to another human, but this one was a lot more eager to buy the product. Once the transaction had been completed, the human left for a bathroom and vanished into it. A minute passed, then another, then five more minutes, and at the ten minute mark, after Nicolas had finished his drink, the human still didn't come out. Nicolas got up and made his way to the bathrooms. The music died down, muffled by the corridor walls leading into the men's room. It felt as if the local DJ knew of Nicolas' situation, and the rhythm seemed to pick up as he entered the toilets, finding them empty. His heart was racing as he opened the empty stalls, looking for the human, until he reached the last one.

He hesitated a moment before opening the stall door, where his suspicions were confirmed. The human was hunched over on the toilet. The bag of red sand was on the floor, a little hole in the corner showing that the victim had taken an extremely small amount before overdosing. Grabbing him by the hair, Nicolas pulled the victims head up, revealing a face twisted into an expression of agony. Pink foam dripped from his nose and mouth, and there was no pulse to be found. Dead.

Baker pursed his lips, exhaling from his nose. He wasn't as angry as he wanted to be, but the Salarian was dangerous. If not to him, to other suggestible patrons. He let the dead man's hair go and backed away as the corpse flopped to the bathroom floor. He walked out to see the music was growing more hectic by the minute. Red strobes and lasers flashed through the artificial fog as Baker made his way towards the bar to look for the Salarian pusher. As he sat down, he heard a distant startled yelp. He looked to see a patron being pushed aside by the krogan bouncer Nicolas had seen at the entrance. He was holding someone as he walked out and Nicolas was able to make out the long fingered hand of a Salarian, "Bingo."

Going back out the entrance tunnel, his vision blurred out everything around him except the krogan and the Salarian. Outisde, the bouncer dumped the pusher down the stairs and walked back inside, nodding to Nicolas as he passed. Baker saw the salarian pat dust off his jacket before walking briskly around the club towards the backside. Nicolas jogged behind him, hugging the wall to remain unseen by the killer.

Suddenly, the salarian turned around and stretched his arms outward, a smile forming as his eyes dashed in every direction. He exclaimed, "Ah! The human reconsidered!" Nicolas stalked closer and closer, nodding, surprised at the dealer's naivety. When he was a meter away, the pusher began opening his jacket.

Baker delivered a sharp blow to the dealer's face, making him stumble backwards, "I'm actually here to make sure you never deal sand again."

"But- but- I thought Aria-"

Nicolas gave the drug dealer another swift but heavy punch right under the rib cage, making him double over, his lungs unable to decide whether to make him retch or gasp for air. The bass from Afterlife's music permeated through the walls and spurred Nicolas' heartbeat on. It felt as if his blood boiled when one of the Salarian's eyes met his.

"You thought Aria wouldn't have noticed a Salarian with crazy eyes poisoning the patrons? Maybe she didn't, pal, but I wasn't sent by Aria. I came here on my own."

Between gasps, the Salarian spoke again, "Then she won't be happy. Oh no, she won't."

Nicolas kicked the killer's ribcage. Hard. He felt a sharp crack through his boot and prosthetics, and the Salarian's arms gave way, making him fall completely to the ground, green blood trickling from his mouth. It was impossible to feel sorry for the drug dealer, but Nicolas didn't want to have the memory of needless torture in the back of his brain. With a quick movement, he expanded his handgun and ended the dealer's misery.

Baker walked back to the entrance. At the doors, the krogan stood in his way and shook his head.

"Come on, man. I just walked out." Nicolas let his arms fall to his sides, the gauntlets clacking on the rest of his armour.

"Aria sent a message for you, human. She says you should clean up your mess around here," the krogan tilted his head the way he had gone earlier, "There's a garbage disposal chute round the back. Get busy."

Nicolas rolled his eyes and walked back around Afterlife. The salarian was still there, and Nicolas noticed the garbage disposal a little further down the wall. He picked up the light corpse and threw it into the chute before walking back. Now he _really_ needed a drink.

…

"Nicolas?" Hal talked into Baker's translator as he finished his second drink.

"Yes?" Nicolas pushed the glass aside and produced a cigarette from his lighter.

"You never told me why we were coming to Omega."

The human puffed a cloud of smoke and watched the tip of the cigarette as it slowly burned up, "I'm here to find out where the Normandy crash landed. For that, I need to know people with connections, and that means I have to stay in the club. The bouncer said Aria owns Afterlife and Omega, so she's the one I have to get to know."

"But that could take months."

"Well, it's the best shot I have. We both know you can't retrieve that info yourself, and no one in citadel space was about to help me. I can only find her if I'm in the Terminus to begin with."

"I'm having trouble understanding _why_ you want to find her.

"I- I don't really know, I want to pay my respects. Maybe bury her like us humans used to. It's hard to explain." Nicolas shook his head.

"Uh-huh." Hal muttered.

…

"Human." A finger tapped on Nicolas' shoulder. He spun around a bit too quickly for his stomach but kept a straight face. A batarian stood behind him, arms now crossed.

"Anything I can do for you, batarian?" Baker was careful not to slur his words, the third glass of whiskey sitting empty on the table.

"You've been invited to the VIP lounge. Come with me."

The human shrugged and followed the batarian up the stairs at the end of the dancefloor. He was lead to the big balcony overlooking everything. Once there, a turian searched him for concealed weapons. Several armed aliens stood around an asari that sat at the end of the balcony. Behind her, the club music boomed and the lights seemed to almost dance _around_ her; the lasers never touched her and the strobes looked as if they originated from behind her head. An air of sovereignty and arrogance emanated from her, the relaxed way she sat and the dismissive look she gave Nicolas as he approached.

"You killed someone outside my house today," the asari's voice carried through the music effortlessly, sounding as if she'd spoken into Nicolas' ear.

Baker did his best effort not to recoil from the closeness of her voice and just nodded. The relaxed smile on the asari's face turned into a menacing glare, "It annoys me when people make a mess."

An almost imperceptible blue glow emanated from the sitting alien and Nicolas felt his prosthetic legs tingling, feeling some of the synthetic muscles being warped. Whatever she was doing, he wasn't budging. The asari looked surprised, "I see you can keep a straight face through pain. I like it. Sit," that last sentence sounded like an order, and Nicolas was quick to obey.

Hal spoke into Nicolas' ear, "Be careful. She's dangerous."

As Nicolas got comfortable on the sofa, the asari waved her hand, making one of her guards leave, coming back almost immediately with two drinks, "Rum?" she offered.

Nicolas nodded and received one of the glasses, clinking it to Aria's before downing it quickly, hoping to relax his racing heart. He spoke with the most laid back voice he could make, "I'll try to keep things clean from now on. I didn't catch your name, though, miss..."

"Aria. If you haven't heard that name, then you'll have a… difficult time here in my home. You see, Omega is mine. I am the ruler of this station. Queen, if you will. There's only one rule in this lawless place and it's simple: Don't fuck with Aria."

"I'll be sure to write that down," Nicolas faked a smug smile and Aria smirked back.

"Now that you know how things work here, you can go. I have other things to look into." Aria waved Nicolas off as the guards around him reaffirmed their grips on their rifles. Nicolas got up and walked to the place he had stood before being invited to sit. He made an almost unnoticeable bow, keeping eye contact with Aria until he turned around. It might be soon before he overstayed his welcome, and he wasn't sure if he would be able to notice the difference between guest and intruder before being shot.

Behind his back, Aria raised a hand and called out to him, "Oh, by the way," a wave of goosebumps shot down Nicolas' spine and his heart skipped a beat as Omega's queen addressed him again, "Drinks are on the house tonight. Stick around and don't make a mess again."

He didn't want to give away his nervous state so nodded without turning around and headed downstairs, raising a hand lazily to say goodbye. He needed a drink, and quickly.

Once he got down to the bar open to all the guests, he sat down near a salarian barman and asked for a glass of water, and a double rum. The water was downed quickly, but he nursed the rum carefully as he lit a cigarette and scanned the club around him. After finding that no one was looking at him, he settled down and turned back to the bar, flicking the tip of his cigarette into an ashtray the bartender slid over. He called for the salarian once he seemed unoccupied, barmen always had something interesting to say.

"What does a bartender do to not die of boredom here? It's night all the time."

"Drink when no one looks. Also watch fights on dance floor. Entertaining to bet."

"Are there a lot of fights in here? I thought Aria wouldn't permit it."

"CCTV, we see fight develop here, and finish outside. Example: turian and human over there, arguing over spilt drink."

Nicolas spun on his chair to look where the salarian's big eyes were staring to see the human getting in the turian's face, evidently demanding another drink, judging by the body language. The turian, however, was looking down at the angry alien with what appeared to be a condescending smile on his face. "Big bird's gonna kick his ass five ways to Sunday, he's a head taller!"

"Ah, but that human is well known to us bartenders. He acts big so people think he's all talk. Turns fight around after receiving a couple of punches."

"I'll have to see that to believe it. Ten credits on the turian."

"Don't say I didn't warn you, human." The salarian laughed and walked away to attend another patron.

The human was pushing his forehead against the turian's now, and out of nowhere head-butted the seemingly calm patron, who laughed and pushed back in response, but before the confrontation could become a fight, a krogan bouncer grabbed the human by his shoulders and shoved him towards the exit. Before being turned around, the human spat at the turian, getting him clean on the chest, causing a faint 'Oh' to simmer in the crowd nearby. This was the last straw for the turian, and he quickly followed behind the krogan.

Nicolas downed his drink and waved his hand at the barman, and he quickly came over with more rum to fill the empty glass and another glass of water. Once he set everything down, he opened his omnitool and brought up a live feed from outside Afterlife just as the krogan threw the human out. He rolled a small distance and was quickly on his feet as the turian stormed up to the human and pushed him with great force. The human fell backwards but regained his footing and stood straight to continue berating the turian.

"Oh, he is _so_ gonna get his head bashed in." Nicolas was intensely focused on the screen, taking big sips off the sweet alcohol.

"Wait, it gets better." The salarian was also enticed by the footage, but filled the glass with rum using his free arm without looking.

Once the turian closed the distance between himself and the still shouting human, he launched a quick punch to the stomach, making the human double over, and followed up by grabbing this shirt and pulling him off his feet to level their faces.

"Looks like you're losing ten credits tonight, bud."

"Just wait for it!"

"A salarian asking for patience? How hypocritical of – Oh _shit_!"

Nicolas was interrupted by what was happening on the screen before him. The human outside had received a couple of head-butts while the turian held him up, but right before the third one, he moved his head out of the way and brought a fist to the spot behind the turian's right mandible. He was immediately released, and once he touched the ground, he brought a leg up to kick the turian in the ribs, and then tackled the noticeably bigger opponent to the ground. He then proceeded to repeatedly punch the turian across the face until he yelled something and the human let off. The turian's omnitool lit up, and the human, satisfied, walked away from the recovering fighter.

Nicolas looked away from the screen to the salarian, who was smiling at him, maybe expecting some praise for his accurate prediction. Picking up the glass, taking a drag from the nearly forgotten cigarette and then downing the rest of the drink, Nicolas smacked his lips and eyed the salarian. He had a feeling the fight was rigged, but it was good entertainment, so he decided to laugh it off.

"Alright. A win's a win," Nicolas' omnitool flashed to existence and the salarian nodded after a second, "here you go, buddy.

"I _did_ warn you," a toothy grin made the salarian look goofy and slightly like a toad, but soon a curious expression transformed his face as his eyes wandered and stayed at Afterlife's VIP floor, "Someone wants to see you, human."

Nicolas' followed his stare and saw the batarian that had taken him to the VIP lounge earlier standing at the railing. He motioned his head to his side, and Nicolas took it as his cue to go see what it was all about. He tapped the tip jar, leaving another ten credits, and headed to the stairs going up to the next floor. The batarian was waiting for him at the top, his four eyes never coming off the human's.

"What's up?"

"Aria summoned you, human. Come with me."

* * *

 **I hope I captured the dangers of omega and how life has a much smaller value in the station.**

 **As always, feedback of any kind is appreciated!**


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3! Enjoy!**

 **Everything in this fanfic is owned by Bioware. No copyright infringement intended.**

* * *

"How has Urvat been treating you?" Aria asked, her calm voice clearly audible through the electronic music of Afterlife.

Nicolas blinked, feeling a little woozy from the drinks he'd had up to that point, "Who?"

Aria rolled her eyes, "The salarian bartender who you lost a bet to," she waved her hand dismissively, "It doesn't matter. I called you up here because I have a little job offering."

"More pushers I should take care of?" Nicolas asked, wary of where this conversation would take him. He stole a glance at Aria's guards. They all were staring back at him, their assault rifles expanded in their hands.

"Oh no, nothing of the sort. You see, here in Omega, there are a couple of private security companies that have certain disagreements regarding their market shares. It just so happens that one of them has been gaining too much power, and I want to avoid a monopoly forming," Aria stretched out a hand and within seconds, a blue drink was handed to her by an old bare-faced turian, "You can help keep the competition fair by intercepting a little shipment of weapons this company is receiving and making it disappear."

"You want me to destroy a weapons convoy," Nicolas leaned back a bit and crossed his arms, raising his eyebrows slightly to look uninterested.

Aria tilted her head back laughing, "Not too good with big words, are you? Yes. At Dock alpha 14, in the lower levels, a shipment will arrive in about two hours' time. Get rid of it any way you can, it doesn't matter how. When you're back, I'll have something to compensate you for your troubles. Now go on, time's wasting, little human."

Nicolas was escorted to the club floor by the same batarian that had lead him up to Aria, handing him an alcohol metabolising pill on the way. Walking over to the salarian bartender Urvat, Nicolas asked for a glass of water, downed the pill and walked out of the club, feeling sober by the time he was out in the commercial district.

Nicolas spoke to Hal after looking around to check nobody was within hearing distance, "We need to buy materials."

"There's a weapons shop on the way to the duffel bag. We could buy anything we don't have and then head down."

Nodding, Nicolas walked down the dirty corridors of Omega. He did his best to keep a straight face when he entered the weapons shop Hal spoke of and saw the clerk. Explosives lined the desk behind which a vorcha stood, waiting for Nicolas to decide what to buy. Guns of all shapes and sizes were on display along the walls.

" _The human is interested in buying?"_ the alien hissed. It was impossible for Baker to know whether it was just a normal question or he was being hurried.

"I need a kilogram of plastic explosives and a remote detonator."

" _Kilogram… kilogram… the human should learn to use common units… kilogram… that's a unit and a half, yes,"_ the vorcha retreated into a little door at the back of the shop, returning with a cube of explosives wrapped in nano-carbide film and a little metallic disk with a holographic display on one side, " _the human will use this for what, if Korvos asks?"_

"I wanna make myself a new apartment but I don't have the time to do it right," Nicolas joked. Korvos seemed to understand, as he made a coughing noise, which might as well have been interpreted as a laugh.

" _15 credits, human."_

Nicolas payed and walked back out, heading for his duffel bag. Reaching the corridor where he had left his bag, he found only the bones of the batarian and human he'd left dead. Probably some other aliens had come to feast while he was gone. Nicolas shook his head as he entered the little abandoned apartment and retrieved his assault rifle from the bag, holstering it on his back. Making sure his bag was hidden, he left for the lower docks.

The place was packed, with people of all races pushing their way through the crowd. Putting his meanest face on, Nicolas walked through the crowd, pushing whoever was in his way aside. He bumped into someone carrying some weird smelling food, making it fall on Baker's armour. Thinking back to what the krogan bouncer had said about dirty armour, he decided to simply glare at the owner of the food to avoid any further confrontation and kept walking.

Dock alpha 14 was still just as crowded as the higher levels Nicolas had walked through. The blast doors were sealed shut and Baker spied a couple of armed batarians both wearing matching yellow armour. Nicolas tilted his head downwards to discreetly address Hal, "Those guys have matching armour with a sun and horizontal lines on it. Could you look for anything on the extranet?"

"Searching… bingo. It's the logo of Eclipse, a merc company."

"So private security… these are our guys. Where are they based?" Nicolas walked past alpha 14 and rested his back against the corridor wall a couple of meters away from one of the mercenaries.

"Nearby. They're in the lowest levels of the commercial district, ten levels up."

"Anywhere else they might have storage space?" Nicolas took a cigarette out and patted a thigh pocket where his plastic explosives were stored.

"Not that I can find on their extranet page… Maybe if I was able to datamine one of the guy's omnitools, I'd be able to get something on where they'll take the weapons."

Nicolas looked at his unlit cigarette and then at the mercs. He muttered a ' _be ready_ ' to Hal and approached the nearest one. A batarian with scuffed up light armour, he occasionally stole glances at the other two mercenaries which were deep in conversation. He looked like the underdog of the three, so it should be easier to get a good hold of his omnitool.

The batarian noticed Nicolas approaching and tilted his chin up, "What do you want, human?"

"Oh, hey man," Nicolas widened his eyes, feigning surprise. He lifted his cigarette innocently before producing another one, "I just got my omni stolen and I really wanna light a cigarette. I've got another in case you want one!"

The batarian muttered to himself under his breath then nodded, taking Nicolas' cigarette before raising his omnitool, a red hot nano-carbide film flash-forging into existence. Nicolas grabbed the batarian's hand to guide the film to his cigarette as Hal spoke into his translator, "I made contact. Just stay within a couple of meters for a little bit."

"Thanks, man. Mind if I stand here?"

The batarian said nothing and looked away, puffing smoke out. Seconds later, Hal asked Nicolas to walk away so they could talk in peace.

"They're gonna take the shipment to the higher levels but from the outside of Omega. It's going to do a pit-stop here so they can check the delivery before one of their own vessels takes it up." Hal spoke through Nicolas' translator, his tone unenthusiastic, like he was giving up on finding a way to get the job done.

"Then we just need to get outside and plant the explosives without them noticing!" Nicolas started walking briskly towards the end of the alpha docks.

"And how are you going to get outside?"

"Through any airlock," Nicolas smiled to himself, patting his helmet that was hanging on the belt of his armour.

"But you don't have a ship! What reason can you give someone to let you out without a ship or a way to manoeuvre yourself outside?"

"Some people don't need a reason," Nicolas walked and smiled at a batarian standing on one of the docks. He got a snarl in return so he approached, the smile still on his face.

"What the _fuck_ are you smiling for, human?" the batarian growled when Nicolas was within hearing distance.

"I found the perfect man for a little deal I want to make! How would you like to make fifty credits?"

"Quit wasting my time, filth," the batarian spat on the ground beside Nicolas' boot but he didn't back away.

"Please, man, it's something I can't do myself! I need you to open this airlock while I'm inside."

The batarian's eyes widened, "You want me to kill you?"

"Yes!" Nicolas nodded, offering his left arm with the omnitool glowing, ready to make the transaction.

The batarian took Nicolas' hand to transfer the credits and input a password into the dock's airlock. The blast door opened and Nicolas stepped in, hand ready on his helmet. When the doors started to close, he hastily fastened it and got ready for decompression when the breather activated. The second blast doors opened and the decompression was instant, hurling Nicolas into the dark void of space. He had no spin, so he extended his assault rifle and fired continually until Hal told him he was not moving away from Omega anymore.

"That would've never occurred to me," Hal muttered.

"We're in Omega, Hal. If you give someone a reason to kill you here, chances are they'll take it."

…

Nicolas held onto the service railing of dock alpha 14 with one hand as he took the cube of plastic explosives out of his thigh pouch. Holding the bomb between his knees, he peeled off the nano-carbide film and pressed the detonator onto the surface of it.

Hal notified him that the cargo shuttle should be arriving in a couple of minutes. He synced his omnitool with the detonator and waited, looking out to the starry sky, spotting the dim sun Sahrabarik radiating orange light on himself and the space station. When he saw the blue glow of ship boosters drawing closer, he pulled himself against the wall that would be the floor of dock alpha 14, lying flat against it. The ship touched down and attached itself to the dock. When Nicolas felt the shudder of the blast doors opening, he pulled himself onto the outer hull of the ship and looked for any kind of panel that could be connected to the ship's computers.

Finding an electric socket near a cargo coupler on the stern of the ship, Nicolas flash forged some wires for Hal to interface. The AI extracted the schematics of the ship and the manifest, confirming the cargo and locating a weak spot where the explosives charge would make the biggest hole in the hull. Pulling himself to the designated spot, Nicolas stuck the explosive to the belly of the ship, under the oxygen and hydrogen tanks used for propulsion. As soon as the block was secure, the ship's boosters activated, almost blinding Nicolas as it pulled away from the dock. He fired his rifle a couple of times to grab onto the dock once more and poked his head around the edge of the space station's walls to look at the ship picked up speed towards its final stop. Activating his omnitool, he detonated the plastic explosive. The fuel tanks ignited and created a white ball of flame that expanded in all directions, fuelled by the rapidly spreading oxygen gas. The explosion dissipated quickly as the fumes decompressed in the vacuum. All that was left were ribbons and jagged chunks of metal.

"Now to get back into the station…" Nicolas muttered.

…

A krogan banged his head against the blast doors of the beta 3 dock. It had been at least ten hours since he'd hit that bag of red sand and he was _still_ dizzy. _If I see that salarian again, I'm gonna beat him up so bad, his eyes will realign permanently,_ he thought to himself as he continued to bang his head on the door, making anyone who passed by hurry away from him. He fumbled around in his pockets, looking for cigarettes to see if they could take some of the effects away, or at least calm the nausea that was accumulating in his stomachs. The thin white tube of batarian tobacco looked miniscule in his shaking hands as he stopped banging his head to hold the cigarette in his mouth. It never reached his face, as his hands clenched into fists instinctively, crunching the cigarette when the blast doors seemed to bang back. The krogan jumped backwards, faintly glowing blue when the blast doors banged again. His dizziness faded away as he activated his omnitool and pressurized the airlock.

The blast doors opened to show a human ruffling his brown hair, a long beard covering the lower half of his face, and was there… _pyjak stew on his armour?_ The human made a perplexed face at the krogan, eyeing the blue glow and the crumpled cigarette in his hand. A second later, a knowing smile crept across the human's face and he produced a cigarette from a pocket. He swiftly stepped forward and placed it in the krogan's open mouth. He patted the krogan's shoulder and walked away after chuckling, "Lay off on the sand, buddy. You're seeing things."

…

Nicolas was starting to feel drowsy as he walked through the commercial district. The bright lights coming from the shops stung his eyes as he neared a full day of being awake. He wondered if there was anywhere safe where he could sleep for a good eight hours as his ears buzzed from overexposure to Afterlife's deafening music. He lit a cigarette as he walked lazily towards the stairs that would lead up to the VIP floor. As he started ascending, a turian stood in his way. He didn't recognize him from the other times he'd been at Aria's part of the club, so he figured this particular guard hadn't been told about him. Regardless, Nicolas wanted to get his errand over with. He was sleepy, therefore cranky, and he was in no mood to be held back for more time than was necessary.

He gave the turian a bored look after scanning him from head to toe. Taking a long drag from his cigarette, he blew the smoke to the side and spoke loudly, "Aria wants to see me, man. Let me through."

The turian grinned smugly at Nicolas and produced a datapad from a back pocket on his armour, "Then I should be able to find your name on the VIP list. Right, human?" a moment of silence ensued. The turian raised a hand to the side of his head before glaring at the human, "Go on up. She's waiting."

Aria sat at her usual spot, this time with a green drink in her hand. A small smile tugged at her lips when she saw Nicolas approaching, "I heard Eclipse lost a ship at the lower docks a little while ago. They didn't want to say who did it but their money is on the Blood Pack. You wouldn't know anything about that?"

Nicolas shrugged, his face drooping in a bored expression, "Don't even know who the Blood Pack are."

The asari patted a hand on the sofa she sat on, "Come sit with me, it's time we got to know each other."

He sat beside the queen of Omega, who stretched the hand she was holding her drink with out. A moment later, the drink was taken from it and a new one offered. She took it without taking her eyes off Nicolas and asked if he wanted rum. He nodded and a moment later, a salarian waiter was pouring the liquid into a clear glass. Aria smirked as Nicolas sipped from the glass and spoke, "So how did you do intercept the delivery without anyone knowing it was you?"

"A magician never reveals his tricks, Aria." Nicolas smiled behind his glass as he took another sip. The asari laughed and looked him up and down, taking in his features.

She scooted a bit closer and looked into Nicolas' eyes. He felt a slight tingling at the back of his neck and his heart skipped a beat when Aria spoke, her voice seemingly coming from right behind his ears, "Does this magician have a name?"

Hal's voice crackled into his ear, "Don't give her your real name. Repeat after me…"

"My name's Jerris, Nathan Jerris," Nicolas did his best to keep a straight face as he said the familiar last name. _Did Hal just give me Caleb's last name?_

Aria raised her eyebrows, "Is Jerris a common name amongst humans? I've heard it before," before Nicolas could answer, Aria raised her hand dismissively, "I don't really care, and I have to put my attention to other things soon. I have a feeling you're tired anyway, so let's talk payment, alright?"

Nicolas nodded and Aria continued, "Since you're obviously new here, I'm guessing you don't have accommodation," again, Aria continued before Nicolas could answer, "So I have an offer. You work for me, and I give you a place to stay. We can talk about money tomorrow, when I have another job for you. Does that sound fair?" a second later, she talked again, "Perfect! I'll have Urvat take you to your place when he's done working, which should be… now. Go see him at the bar and be back here by midday tomorrow. Off you go!"

Nicolas got up from the sofa and walked down the stairs sipping on his rum. His muscles started aching from moving around for so long, every cell in his body begged for sleep. The salarian bartender was standing on the customer side of the bar, his big eyes fixed on Nicolas. The two moved wordlessly towards the outside of Afterlife. Nicolas asked Urvat if he could walk with him to where he left his duffel bag and then to the wherever Aria had instructed them to go. The salarian nodded and they crossed the bridge to the commercial district.

…

They had finished walking seven levels up when Urvat walked away from the stairwell, down a corridor of apartments with reinforced doors and windows. After turning a couple of corners, the Salarian came to a stop at a door like all of the others. He raised his left hand to Nicolas, omnitool activated, "The keycode to unlock apartment," he offered.

Nicolas raised his omnitool to Urvat's until it pinged. The salarian nodded once and walked away. Nicolas opened the door to his new apartment and walked in. It was a small place. There was a toilet and shower crammed into a two square meter room, and a living space with a bed that folded out from the wall. A small heating unit sat in the corner of the four meter squared room and the window leading out to the corridor was blurred. Nicolas dropped his duffel bag on the floor and collapsed on the bed, falling asleep instantly.

…

" _Oh honey, did I wake you up?"_

 _Nicolas opened his eyes. He looked to his side, seeing the orange glow of a holo-screen. His eyes focused to see Jane's face on the screen. Her eyebrows were raised in the middle and drooping at the sides. Her lips were pursed in an expression of mock guilt. Nicolas smiled and tried to speak, but the words wouldn't leave his mouth._

" _Hun, you don't need to be angry because I called late. I just wanted to see how you were doing. Don't you want to talk?"_

 _Nicolas nodded but it seemed like Shepard couldn't see him. She shook her head and walked away from the holo-screen, out to the room where Nicolas was laying. She stood at the edge of Nicolas' bed, letting her arms fall at her sides. Her eyes were tearing, "I just want to talk to you…" she sighed._

 _The wall behind her started twinkling as stars appeared, and the once solid wall receded into infinity, becoming the black void of space. Shepard walked back and began to float, drifting further and further away from Nicolas, "I just wanted to talk to you."_

 _Nicolas tried to sit up. He stretched a hand to Jane, but she was too far away to grasp. Tears began to fall down his cheeks as he tried to call for her and no sound came._

 _A yellow light started glowing behind Jane, growing brighter and brighter, "I just wanted to talk to you before I died," the light was blinding at this point, and it engulfed Shepard as Nicolas' voice came back._

" _Jane!" Nicolas screamed, but the light died away and Shepard was nowhere to be seen._

"Nicolas!" Hal's voice awoke the human as he sat up with a start, "You were talking in your sleep."

Baker wiped tears off his face as he murmured, "it was just a bad dream Hal. I'm alright."

* * *

 **So yeah, Nicolas' first day in Omega's over. I hope you like the chapter! As always, feedback is much appreciated!**


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter 4! Enjoy!**

 **Everything in this fanfic is owned by Bioware. No copyright infringement intended.**

* * *

Urvat slid the bottle of rum to Nicolas, tired of filling his glass up. The human had been drinking since he'd arrived at the club, early in the morning. Now, Baker sat at the far end of Afterlife's bar, fumbling with the bottle's cap as he served himself yet another helping of rum, spilling some of it on the table. Droopy green eyes looked up to the salarian bartender as he approached the human with a pill in his hand.

"Take this metabolizer. Aria is asking for you," Urvat spoke loudly to make sure he was heard as he tilted his head towards the balcony that overlooked Afterlife's dance floor.

Nicolas looked over his shoulder to see Aria's trusty batarian beckoning him over. Downing the alcohol metabolizing pill with the rest of his rum, he shook his head as he walked towards the VIP stairs, swallowing periodically to keep the threat of vomiting at bay.

"Aria wants to see you, Jerris," the batarian eyed Nicolas as he ascended the stairs.

It jarred Nicolas to hear his fake name, but he was too annoyed that his drunkenness had been interrupted to show it, "Yeah, I'd thought as much," he snapped as he walked up to the balcony where Aria sat at her usual spot.

"Hello, Nathan. How're you today?" Aria smirked as she saw Nicolas' eyes come into focus, the alcohol metabolizing pill taking effect.

"Fine."

Aria frowned, then her expression relaxed to indifference, "I see you're still having trouble with words, so I'll keep it simple. A man owes me money. He refuses to pay me so you're gonna go to his house and give him a good scare. If you do your job right, I won't have to worry so much about whether he'll pay me rather than when, so you have all day to plan this out. Don't rush, because he's got friends. Oh, and before you go. Would you care to follow me?"

Aria got up from her sofa, standing slightly taller than Nicolas as she walked past him. A batarian nudged him to follow, so he obliged. It was hard to keep his eyes off Aria's legs and her gait as she led him into a corridor at the far end of the club's VIP floor. At the end was a door, locked until Aria swiped her onnitool above the lock's hologram. Inside was a claustrophobic and dark room with concrete walls. Beside the door was a hose and in the middle of it a drain. A light flickered on and off in the back, and directly under it was a human, immobilized by hard-plastic cuffs.

Nicolas eyed the man's blonde hair, caked with dry blood. He was wearing armour that had been warped at the thighs, and the plates on his arms had been shattered. It was hard to tell if he had any broken bones since he didn't move or react to the newcomers. Aria stood in front of Nicolas with her back to him. She spoke with a low tone, "Anto, leave us and close the door behind you."

Nicolas was startled when the batarian left and the door slid closed, blocking off almost all of the outside noise. Aria turned around and smirked at Nicolas, her eyes glowing in the flickering light, like those of a cat, "Any idea who this man is, Jerris?"

Nicolas shrugged and Aria looked over her shoulder, "He used to be called John Carver, but for the last month, he's had no name. No origin, no family, no friends, nothing. All his world is right now is the flickering lights, water and raw varren meat. I'm pretty sure this is the first time he's heard words since he entered this room. He can't answer, of course. I had his jaw wired shut and his vocal chords cut. Do you know what he did, Jerris?"

Nicolas shook his head. Aria turned back around to look at the man, "Or rather, what he didn't do. I asked him to kill someone, and he got soft. Said he wouldn't kill women or children. That was the last thing he said. I have no place here for people who don't do what they say they'll do, Jerris. Is that clear?"

"Yeah, Aria, I get it."

"I've got to attend to other matters. Stay here and put him out of his misery. I'll have Anto send you the details of your job," Aria turned once more to Nicolas and slapped his face lightly a couple of times before leaving, "You look hideous with a beard. Be a dear and shave it off, ok?"

The door whooshed open and closed shortly after. Nicolas expanded his handgun and aimed at the human. The trigger was about to reach the firing position when the man looked up, meeting Nicolas' glare. Baker had to do his best and keep tears of empathy from leaving his eyes. The man's mouth had been deformed from the wires that wove in and out of his jaws and through his lips. One of his eyes' sclera's was a deep red, and the other had a permanently dilated retina. A part of his face had been badly burnt at some point, so only the scars of the blisters remained. Nicolas' gun shook as he looked at the man, taking in the details of what could happen if he crossed Aria.

"Are you ready?" Nicolas asked the man. _This is for the best._

The man nodded slowly and closed his eyes.

Anto heard a bang come from within the room before the door whooshed open, letting Aria's human puppet out of the room.

…

Nicolas had given Anto the fake ID Hal had made and his contact information. Shortly after, he was sent an address and the face of the man (Anthony Garcia was his name) he was supposed to intimidate. Nicolas was instructed to call Aria when he had taken care of the man's security detail and had the target immobilized.

Baker wanted to sit at the bar for a cigarette before leaving to case the building in which the target was. Urvat nodded at him and walked over when the human had sat down, "Had an unpleasant meeting? Rum could help."

Nicolas nodded absentmindedly as he blew smoke from his nose. The Salarian bartender produced a glass for behind the table top and looked for a bottle when Nicolas stretched his hand out to stop him, "can I just take the bottle with me?"

Urvat gave him a blank stare before handing him the rum container. Nodding his thanks, Nicolas walked out of the club, a cigarette in one hand and the bottle in the other. Hal looked through the extranet for any form of record regarding the address' layout as Nicolas got into a rapid transit sky car.

"Last update on the map was a decade ago. It was a restaurant for human cuisine, at least back then," Hal tapped into the sky car's speakers to talk with Nicolas.

"Oh great, Aria's having me wreck the _one_ place where I can get edible food in this shithole," Nicolas took a swig from the bottle and coughed before opening window slightly to let all the smoke that had accumulated inside the cabin out.

"We could go somewhere else in the Terminus to look for Shepard's remains, Nicolas."

"We're already making progress in getting the Terminus' most powerful person on our side, Hal." Nicolas rested his head against the window as Omega's mismatched architecture whizzed by.

"Maybe somebody else could help…"

"Oh yeah? Who?" Nicolas snapped, throwing his cigarette at the passenger seat, where his hazy mind told him Hal's voice was coming from, "You know as well as I do that Liara disappeared before I left the Citadel. Nobody from the alliance is going to help either. I don't want to bother any of the crew either. They all had their closure, so I won't bore them with my bullshit," Nicolas took a deep breath and leaned over to retrieve the cigarette that was smoking on the sky car's floor, "The last option would be to try to reach the Shadow Broker, but we don't have that kind of money. We _need_ Aria, Hal."

"Well, we're at the place now anyhow, so you'd better leave the bottle here."

Nicolas climbed out of the sky car, flicking his cigarette over the railing behind the rapid transit station. He walked down a corridor Hal was leading him into to find the building he was looking for: Red clay bricks had been pasted on the grimy grey walls that were omnipresent in omega to give it an old fashioned human look to it, and had been grafittied over for the years following the decoration. A neon sign with a white background read in cursive human characters, "Tony's Pizza, Shawarma and Tacos and Noodles"

Hal asked Nicolas, "What kind of human food is all of that?"

Nicolas pursed his lips as he looked through the plexi-glass door into the rather empty restaurant, "Earth food, Hal. Looks like the restaurant isn't doing too good."

"Kind of explains why 'Tony' might owe Aria money."

Nicolas nodded and looked at the restaurant's neighbouring buildings. There was no service alley between them, and the two seemed abandoned. Nicolas began walking towards the end of the corridor as he spoke to Hal, "Is there a way to get behind the restaurant?"

"Yes. Take your first left, then the next left. You'll end up right behind Tony's and the other two buildings."

…

Nicolas peeked out into the small space behind the buildings. There was a dumpster and a single door that lead into one of the abandoned buildings, but no door leading into the restaurant itself. He hummed to himself with curiosity and walked into the service courtyard. A moment later, the door leading into the building swung open, and a human walked out with a handgun raised towards Nicolas. He had dark hair slicked back neatly and squeaky clean black armour. He exclaimed with a high pitched nasal voice, "Aight, buddy, put 'em up."

Nicolas raised his hands, identifying the man as definitely not Anthony, "Hey, man, it's all good, I just got lost."

"Well lemme tell ya, ye ain't got no business 'ere, ahright? Just go and there won't be no problems."

"Alright, alright, I'll go," Nicolas turned around quickly and went the way he'd come from.

Hal spoke into his ear, "That must be part of the security detail."

"Yeah, and they really don't want me snooping around the back. I'm guessing it isn't just a restaurant."

"I wonder what could be so secretive if practically anything is legal in Omega," Hal wondered.

"Anything that goes against the powerful's interests."

…

Garrus paced around his apartment in Tayseri ward. It had been two days since Nicolas had left the Citadel with almost no trace. The human's home terminal had been completely wiped, leaving no clue to his whereabouts apart from that text file. _I went to find Shepard._

His position in C-sec didn't give him any luck with the Alliance either. They had been adamant on the confidentiality of the Normandy's location, and he didn't want to pressure any of the crew into telling him either, not like they were available anyway. Joker was grounded and had been taken to the Sol system for a debriefing that was getting a bit too long. Something was terribly off about the whole ordeal.

What made matters worse was the council's response. It was declared that the geth had destroyed the Normandy, and news all over the extranet had started spreading speculations of Sovereign being a geth super-weapon. Garrus shook his head as he sat in front of his own terminal, going through the latest news. _It's like they are actively trying to downplay the Reaper threat._ Shutting off the holo-screen, he rested his forehead on the keyboard.

"Where did you go, broom head?" he whispered to himself. He reminisced about the mission against Saren, realizing he missed those days more than he cared to admit. The red tape of C-sec justice took very little time to get on his nerves again. He wanted to make a real difference, help the people that actually needed help. At this point, all that the Citadel really needed was repair and reconstruction. Life had become so _boring._

Turning the holo-screen back on, he logged into the C-sec database and looked through the most wanted list. _Elanos… Tazzik… Okeer… Kasumi… Vido… Zaeed… Nyreen… Aria… Garm… Jaroth… Tarak._ The Batarian's face glowed on the holo-screen as Garrus scrolled through his dossier.

He mumbled out the text, "Wanted for kidnapping on multiple occasions… smuggling… slave-trafficking… who is this guy?"

He continued reading through the crimes the batarian had commited, wondering why he hadn't been brought to justice, until his question was answered at the end of the dossier. _Current whereabouts – Unknown. Last known location – Omega station, Omega system, Terminus._

Garrus leaned back in his chair, exhaling through his nose. The Terminus systems where far away from C-sec jurisdiction, and Omega was the de facto capital of them all. He tapped his talons on the desk as he thought about what civilian life must be like over there and an idea started forming in his mind. Maybe he could make a change _outside_ C-sec.

…

Nicolas stumbled into the street, almost falling after being kicked out of the human restaurant. He turned to face the door when he regained his footing and shouted, "Your Taco's were shitty anyway! Varren meat is _not_ a substitute for chicken!"

Hal spoke into Nicolas' ear, "Would you keep quiet? Anthony's guards will shoot you if they even see you again!"

Nicolas chuckled as he walked back to the rapid transit station, looking for a liquor store on the way, "I'm counting on that, Hal. I'm counting on it. Could you show me the way to a spot directly above Tony's, on the next level?"

"Sure. Care to tell me why we're going there?"

Nicolas entered a store, smiling at the elderly Salarian at the counter. He whispered to Hal as he browsed through the various bottles lined up on the walls, "We're going to pull off a move that our favourite Spectre once made."

…

Nicolas sat against the wall of an abandoned building, a level above Tony's restaurant. An empty bottle of Pisco was clinking around between his feet as he pushed it from side to side. After drunkenly pointing his gun at anyone who passed by for the previous eight hours, he started to feel drowsy. He activated his omnitool and spoke, addressing Hal, "How much longer is it going to take? I stopped being drunk an hour ago."

"I told you to buy a metabolizing pill, Nicolas. Ask me again in another hour. There is a ton of useless code in Omega's intranet, and I'm having trouble locating Tony's network."

"It's just one level down!" Nicolas kicked the bottle and huffed, "Whatever, I'm going to sleep. Wake me up if anyone approaches."

"Yes, nap it off." Hal replied and stayed quiet as Nicolas grumbled unintelligibly until he fell asleep. Hal had been able to hack into Tony's closed network hours ago, but the human was in no state to raid the place, so he'd spent the time looking through the CCTV cameras. Hal had observed the interactions between the humans and Anthony, whom he'd found in the back of the restaurant's kitchen.

The group was apparently storing a large stash of weapons in the neighbouring building, and their communications revealed how Aria had warned them about paying for the loan she'd given them. They were preparing for Aria's forces to come knock on the door, and were ready for a small-scale war to unravel in their level, hoping to be able to stave off her attacks. It was a foolish endeavour, seeing their relaxed demeanours and how unprepared they were for non-conventional attacks like the one Nicolas was planning. Hal let the hours go by as nobody passed their location. It was nearing 0300 standard galactic time when Hal noticed the people below heading into the neighbouring building to sleep. Giving Nicolas a light shock under the omnitool, the human stirred.

"What time is it, Hal?"

"0300 standard galactic. How are you feeling?"

Nicolas cracked his neck to the sides as he stood up, "Fresh as a pyjak. Were you able to get into Tony's network?"

"Yes. Everyone inside is going to sleep, so it seems like now is a good a time as any to do whatever you plan on doing."

"Great. Where is the biggest concentration of people I have to incapacitate?"

"Five meters to your right," Hal said as Nicolas put his helmet on, "I'll highlight them on your HUD. Remember to not kill Anthony. He'll show up in red."

"Roger that. Could you synthesize det-chord?"

"On it," Hal announced as the omnitool synthesized a string of explosives wrapped in omnigel rubber.

…

"Ain't it weird how dat asari bitch still hasn't tried to beat our door down?" a nasal voice filled the dark room beside Tony's kitchen.

"We all know she ain't got the balls to cross us. All her batarian bodyguards are nothin' but phonies," another voice answered in the dark.

"Hey boys, keep it the hell down, ahright? We don't want Tony wakin' up," a third voice, this one gravely and low piped up.

"Quit bustin' our balls, Mike, you asslicker," the second voice snapped whispering, "anyways, how's about we all just go to sleep?"

"Yeah, goodnight, boys," the nasal voice whispered.

…

Nicolas lit a circle of thermite he'd spread on the floor, waiting for it to weaken the concrete enough for the det-chord to be an effective breach method. He put his helmet on and observed how the visor darkened to dim the blinding light of the combustion. When the thermite was done burning, he cleared the ashes with his boot and layed the chord on the floor. Flash forging a couple of long wires, he backed away a little and thought about the last time he saw someone do this.

 _It was the mission on Solcrum, where Shepard had gone to clear out the geth from an alliance research facility. The thermite chord had melted through the floor and Jane fell through with Tali, firing at the geth platforms on the lower level. Ashley and Kaidan descended from another direction, catching the geth platforms on two fronts. Every bullet fired by the spectre found its target, and the geth were swiftly shot down._

Nicolas remembered the meal following that mission on Solcrum, how everyone had huddled around the four who'd gone into the research facility. He remembered Garrus gesticulating wildly as he got lost in the narration of Shepard's breaching technique.

Nicolas' heart skipped a beat when Jane's smile came to mind and he stood up, cutting the cables he'd flash forged to the det-chord.

"I can't do it, Hal. I can't do it. Shepard was a fucking N7, and she was accompanied." He paced around the det-chord, his gloves clacking on his helmet.

"What about finding Jane, Nicolas? We need to do this for Aria."

"Let's just run away. I can upload you somewhere and I just jump out an airlock."

Hal stayed silent for a moment, thinking his odds over. It was unlikely Nicolas would get far once Aria knew he hadn't done the job. It was also unlikely he would jump out an airlock… Nicolas was much too cowardly for that. Hal could easily sneak out of Omega and into the extranet, but he knew he could learn more of galactic society by sticking with Nicolas, getting first-hand experience instead of just scouring through data. He decided staying with the human was the most interesting path, and he felt what could only be expressed as annoyance as Nicolas kept pacing around the det-chord. He began synthesizing epinephrine.

"Oh no, Nicolas, you are _not_ bailing on me now," Hal injected the epinephrine discreetly and waited for Baker's heartbeat to rise, "Now you are gonna get in there and do what you came here to do. Then we can go talk to Aria and try to get her to find out something about Shepard."

Nicolas gnashed his teeth as he stopped pacing, breathing heavily. His head shot around to glare at the det-chord. Walking over to it, he checked his shields, _100% capacity_.

"They could probably resist." Nicolas talked to himself.

Nicolas' intentions didn't reach Hal, however, and the AI asked, "What could resist what, Nicolas?"

"Just look," Nicolas marched into the circle and covered the det-chord in hardened omnigel, leaving two wires out to connect with his omnitool. He made sure his helmet was secured and soldered the wires to his omni. A moment later, Nicolas jumped into the air and sent a charge of electricity into the explosives.

…

"I'm tellin' ya, I heard some hissin' comin' from the roof."

"Shut the fuck up, Mike, will ya? It ain't hissin' no more so go to slee-"

The voices were interrupted when a clean circular portion of the room's roof shot to the ground, crushing Mike underneath it. Dust filled the room as the other two humans rolled off their beds, covering their bleeding ears as Nicolas fell in, his legs hissing when he touched the ground.

 _Sheilds at 0% capacity._ Nicolas looked around as Hal highlighted two prone figures in his HUD. He got rid of them quickly with his handgun, since they didn't have shields. He thought to himself, "I think I'll have to sleep with my armour on from now on."

Hal spoke into his translator, "Anthony is in the other room, heading for the armoury."

"Can't allow that." Nicolas stalked into the restaurant, the cloud of dust following behind him. He stopped short of where the armoury was and took a deep breath before addressing Hal, "Be ready to help me aim. I'll go for his hands."

The handgun in Nicolas' hands collapsed and extended again as Hal interfaced with it, lending his processing power to the aim assistance system. Nicolas took a couple of steps back from the door to the armoury. He tilted his head down to address Hal as the AI switched his suit's speakers off, "Hal, hit the lights."

Immediately, all the lamps within the restaurant and the adjacent buildings were shut off. The clouds of dust billowing around the inside became indistinguishable from the pitch black of the walls and floor. From beyond the door frame, an orange glow lit up, and Nicolas could hear the anxious breathing of Anthony mixed with alarmed gasps for air. Baker reared and ran for the armoury, jumping at the last second, diving into the room. He raised his gun towards the orange glow of Anthony's omnitool, and Hal did the rest by pinpointing the target's gun. Nicolas' bullet hit the gun's trigger guard, blowing right through it and the user's middle finger. The handgun collapsed as safety measures detected the weapon's integrity damage and Anthony dropped to the ground, holding his hurt hand. Drawing closer, Nicolas rested the barrel of his own gun on the target's forehead. Hal dialled Aria's contact information and the asari answered, her voice filling Nicolas' helmet. He muttered, "I've got Tony here with me."

"Put me on speakers, I need to tell him something," came the voice of the matriarch.

Nicolas' omnitool began to glow as Hal did as Aria asked. The asari's voice crackled out of the omnitool and Anthony stopped whimpering as he let go of his hand and stared at the orange hologram, "Tony, I seem to remember telling you Omega has one rule. You have three days to pay me back what I gave you. I'll be expecting a present on behalf of your lack of punctuality. Ask my darling to come back to me."

The connection was terminated and Anthony looked up at the dark visor of Nicolas' helmet. Baker smiled behind the visor and his voice crackled through his helmet's speakers, "I think that's my cue to leave."

* * *

 **Aaaaaand that was chapter 4! I hope Nicolas' deteriorating state is visible. If you have any form of feedback, don't hesitate letting me know :D**

 **Anyways, until next time!**


	5. Chapter 5

**Chapter 5! Enjoy!**

 **Everything in this fanfic is owned by Bioware. No copyright infringement intended.**

* * *

The adrenaline from the raid at Tony's was wearing off as Nicolas got in the sky-car. The lights of Omega's streets whizzed by and nausea began to well up in his stomach when he saw Afterlife outside the window. _It's the hangover from the Pisco,_ he thought to himself, _You'll get a Bloody Mary from Urvat and you'll be right as rain._

 _You're scared of seeing Aria again, you pussy._

"What did you say, Hal?" Nicolas looked around the sky-car, trying to pinpoint where the remark had come from.

"Say what? I didn't say anything," came the voice from Nicolas' translator. Nothing else was said for the rest of the trip.

…

"So that phone call proves you did your job. Tell me, what was it Anthony wanted to do with the credits I lent him?" Aria sat on her couch overlooking the club. She eyed Nicolas as the human massaged the bridge of his nose before answering, the last of the hangover fading out after taking the pill Urvat had handed him.

"He bought guns. Loads of guns. Looked like he was aiming to fend off whoever you sent to collect the money."

Aria shook her head with amusement, "Stupid humans, always thinking they can outsmart the other species when they're really showing off how far behind they are. Wouldn't you agree, dear?"

"Whatever. He still spent the money you gave him."

"He knows what can happen, so he'll have the money soon enough. Anyways, now that his sons are gone, I think he won't have a hard time selling the extra weapons he bought." Aria smiled to herself, swirling the blue liquid in a glass she'd just received from the elder turian that stood at her side.

A moment of realization hit Nicolas, followed by a pang of guilty nausea filling his stomach. Hal whispered into his translator, aware of the current situation, "Remember what we're here for."

Baker shook his head and swallowed down the excess saliva that his mouth couldn't stop making. He gave Aria a glare, hoping his eyes weren't watering, "You know, the apartment you gave me was nice and all, but I feel this job was a bit larger than my previous deed."

Aria raised her eyebrows, then smiled at her bodyguards, earning chuckles from them. She turned her head to address Nicolas, "Oooooh, the boy wants to talk business. Tell me, Jerris, what were you expecting to earn from this _dangerous mission_ I sent you on?"

Unconsciously, Nicolas straightened his back in a feeble attempt to look more authoritarian, "I want information regarding the Normandy's crash site."

Again, Aria raised her eyebrows mockingly, "Is that so? Well, Nathan dear, that kind of information is hard to come by. Why would you think I'd know?"

"I don't, but I think you have a better chance of finding out than I do. The Normandy crashed in the Terminus. All information in the Terminus stops at Omega eventually, so you, being the Queen of Omega and all," Nicolas waved his arms at the word 'queen' to look unintimidated, "should hear about it eventually."

Aria's demeanour, to Nicolas' surprise, didn't become hostile. She gave him a curious smile instead, "That's awfully insightful for a human. What interest do you have in finding the Normandy?"

Hal spoke into Nicolas' ear and he repeated, "Anything that was a part of the Normandy will probably sell in Citadel space for big credits. I just want to cash in before anyone else gets to it."

The asari rubbed her chin before speaking again, "Well, Nathan, I'll be straight with you so you don't get your young hopes up too much," she emptied her drink in one swift gulp before leaving the glass in the turian's hands, "That kind of information will most probably be hoarded by the Shadow Broker as soon as it starts circulating. Now, most people don't know this, but I'll let you in on a secret," she winked before continuing, "Once something come's across the Broker's desk, it becomes really expensive. The value of information like that goes far beyond whatever you've been worth to me as of yet. I'll tell you what: I'll give you free drinks for the rest of your stay in Omega and five thousand credits for your job at Tony's. The information on the Normandy will have to wait, sadly. Now I've got other things to do, so go downstairs and enjoy the alcohol," Aria waved her hand dismissively at the human, who was now shaking, knowing that he'd probably never know where the Normandy came to rest.

Anto, the batarian assistant, nudged Nicolas towards the stairs when the human had remained idle for a couple of seconds. He batted the batarian's hand away angrily and snapped, "I know how to get to the stairs, prick."

Nicolas walked down and sat at the bar in front of Urvat. The human leaned over the bar and grabbed a bottle of rum and an empty glass, earning a disapproving look from the bartender. Hal didn't speak any words of reassurance as Nicolas downed his first glass with a grimace. The AI had looked into enough human psychology text books to know nothing could really be said that would help for the time being.

…

Nicolas had spent the better of three hours nursing the bottle he had taken from the bar and was thoroughly drunk. His hands hadn't stopped shaking since the conversation with Aria as he racked his head trying to come up with a way to contact the Shadow Broker and cheat him out of the information he _definitely had to have_.

 _That asari bitch knows where Shepard is._

Nicolas shook his head and looked around to find whoever said that. He found that all the other patrons sat far from him, and Urvat was attending someone else on the other side of the bar. _It was just the music,_ he thought to himself.

His omnitool pinged, and Hal spoke into Nicolas' translator, "You've got a message from Aria."

The human activated the hologram to see the notification. The five thousand credits had been deposited and Aria's message followed: _I've thought it over, and I think we can make a deal regarding the information you're looking for. How about we discuss it up here? Take an alcohol metabolizer, and don't bother showing up wearing your disgusting beard._

Nicolas looked at the almost empty rum bottle and got up after he gulped down the rest. He walked briskly (and dizzily) out of Afterlife and into the commercial district, looking for some sort of pharmacy. He ended up standing outside the weapon's shop he'd bought the plastic explosives out of and decided to enter.

The vorcha stood at the counter, rubbing his hands together, " _So the human returns to see Korvos. Does it wish to make renovations in the apartment?"_

"I'm actually looking for a metabolizing pill and a razor. Any idea where I can find that?" Nicolas looked around drunkenly.

The vorcha hissed and shook his head, " _Korvos has the monomol blade, but not the pill. Has the human tried throwing up? It could solve problem."_

"I'll have the razor, then. I kind of want to be sober _and_ smell decent, though."

Korvos coughed out a laugh, " _Korvos forgets other species care about smell. Drug store is a block that way,"_ the vorcha tilted its head to the side, " _the blade is ten credits."_

After buying the sheathed razor, Nicolas walked to the drug store run by a volus in scuffed brown armour. He took the pill immediately after buying it, and the human jogged back home, feeling more sober each step he took.

…

"Maybe you should have a sober day, Nicolas. Taking metabolizers puts twice as much strain on your liver," Hal warned Nicolas as he carefully used the monofilament blade to cut his beard off.

He put the blade parallel to the flow of the tap water so as to not shatter it as the strands of hair slid off the razor as he hummed, agreeing, "maybe I should… not like buying metabolizers is doing my wallet any favours. It's just that," Nicolas paused as he dragged the blade across his face again, "being sober, Hal. It's boring when I'm alone."

"But I'm on your omnitool all the time," Hal spoke coolly, aware of the fact that the human wasn't taking him into account. His algorithms brought up data on Nicolas' medical reports from the Normandy. _Apathetic._

"I know, I know, Hal. But you don't have a body, or a face that I can look at when I talk to you," Nicolas paused again, "sometimes I think you say things when you've been quiet the whole time."

"Really? Like what?" Hal brought up more data from the medical file. _Possible withdrawal symptoms._

"Nothing in particular," Nicolas lied. He rinsed the blade and fanned it out to shake the moisture away before storing it. He gave his face quick look in the mirror before turning to leave for Afterlife, "I'll lay off on the drinking for a bit, though."

 _Gonna sober up, pussy?_

Nicolas stopped abruptly at the door leading into his bedroom. With one swift motion he turned around to see himself in the mirror, a worried expression on his face. Hal spoke into his translator, "What's up?"

Without answering, Nicolas shook his head and walked out of the apartment.

…

"So you decided to look decent. I'm impressed, Jerris!" Aria chuckled as Nicolas came to a halt in front of her. The asari looked him over with an expression of lust deliberately displayed on her face.

Nicolas felt goosebumps go down his spine but didn't let his expression of indifference change. He spoke sarcastically, "Nothing but the best for the Queen of Omega."

Aria's expression transitioned back to her characteristic smug smirk, "Wouldn't expect less. Since you're here to talk business, why don't you follow me?"

Nicolas arched an eyebrow, "I already know your little dungeon."

"Follow me somewhere else," Aria rolled her eyes as she got up, "and keep stupid remarks to yourself from now on, alright?"

The asari lead Nicolas down a corridor and up another flight of stairs. The music died down with each step they took until they reached a door with burgundy cushioned panels and a yellow lock hologram. Aria raised her omnitool to it and within a few seconds, the door whooshed open to reveal a sort of relaxation room. There was a round bed at the end, large enough to fit at least five people comfortably, and beside it was a bar embedded into the wall with more kinds of alcohol than Nicolas cared to count. Closer to them were a couple of sofas with a low table in the middle. A bag of Red sand rested on a silver tray in the middle of it. The music from the club was inaudible at that point, and in its place was a slower tempo tune, definitely meant for ambient rather than dancing.

Aria walked in and Nicolas followed. The door whooshed closed behind him and the hologram lock cycled to red. The asari walked over to a sofa and sat down, motioning for the human to sit on the one opposite her.

"The bar behind me has every liquor you can imagine, so if you want one, go get it before we start," Aria pointed a thumb over her shoulder.

Nicolas shook his head, "I'd rather be sober for this."

She smiled and raised her feet onto the table top. Her right hand glowed blue and a bottle from the bar floated into her hands. She inspected it quickly and pulled the plastic cork off before taking a swig of the Thessian wine inside. After a satisfied _aaaah,_ she gave Nicolas a serious stare, "I can't give you the Normandy's location _and_ let you keep whatever you find. It's bad for business. As I said before, I can't give you anything without losing money, so we have to find a way that makes my numbers favourable."

"And how can we get around to that?"

Aria rubbed her chin, as if she were deep in thought, "Everything you've done, I could have perfectly asked one of my people to do, which is why it's not really worth much. For your job to be worth something, it has to be something I wouldn't do with my people. Luckily for you, there are things here on Omega that I want to influence anonymously."

Nicolas nodded and Aria continued after taking another swig of the wine, "I already showed you what happens when you don't get the job done. From now on, just know that if anyone identifies you while you're working, you're as good as dead, so you're gonna have to lose the armour. Nobody can know that you work for me."

"Fair enough. What would my first job be, then?"

"There's an up and coming mercenary company in the higher levels. They mostly do jobs outside Omega, so they don't worry me… for now. I lend them money, and they pay back on time. To them, I'm a benevolent bank, and I want to keep it that way. The problem is that they're growing too quickly, so I need them to be put down, hard. If I asked another merc to do it, they could talk too much, but I'm sure you know what is at stake and what you stand to win if you do things right, Nathan."

Nicolas frowned and looked at his feet. She wanted him to take down a merc company. Aria spoke up again, "I need you to kill at least thirty of their sixty person workforce and destroy whatever weapons they have stored in their headquarters. Take all the time to want. When you're done, message me evidence, and I'll have a ship waiting for you in the lower docks with a crew ready to take you wherever the Normandy crashed."

Nicolas faced Aria, meeting her stare. She seemed to know what the human was thinking, and smiled, "Trust that I can deliver, Nathan. I know for a fact that the Shadow Broker has the info. I've asked around already. I just need something to persuade me to pay the price. Get the job done," Aria stood up and Nicolas did the same. They walked together back out into the club in silence. When they were about to reach Aria's sofa overlooking the dancefloor, the asari put a hand on Nicolas' shoulder, squeezing lightly between the ceramic plates, "I'll send you all the info I have on them soon. Get another suit on the extranet and have it delivered to your place before you do anything."

…

Nicolas sat on his bed, robotically loosening the bolts on the joints of the leg prosthetic he'd just removed. He laid the components out on the bed and inspected each one for signs of wear. His omnitool sat beside him, its hologram showing the receipt of the armour he'd just bought. He had no idea Cord-Hislop manufactured armour sets, but they were the company that asked for the least billing details so it was the obvious choice. Delivery was set to arrive two days later, so he had ample time to prepare everything else he needed. Hal had made a handy shopping list for Korvos to look through and hand Nicolas the day the following morning.

"Think we'll be able to pull it off?" Hal asked.

"That's a really useless question, Hal," Nicolas scoffed as he re-tightened a muscle cord to his ankle, "We _have_ to pull it off. It's just a question of how, and you answered that question with the shopping list you sent Korvos."

"You're getting really hard to talk to, you know that?"

"Well, I'm not in the happiest of places, Hal. I don't know if you can load some pictures of a Caribbean world or something and get your virtual consciousness lost in it but I can't. I can't get Jane out of my head and finally I have a shot at finding her. Being nice isn't on my top priority list, and I'm sorry that you have to deal with it. I'll make an effort to be more talkative if you want."

Hal didn't answer and instead brought up the schematics for Nicolas' prosthetic, showing the human he had attached a muscle cord upside down.

…

Nicolas looked over his shoulder as he walked towards his apartment from Korvos' store to make sure the corridor was empty. He held a crate in his hands, which he tossed in through the front door before hauling the armour crate that had been delivered to his place inside. Opening the hard plastic crate with the Cord-Hislop logo on it, he found the components of the new set of armour. The first layer was a pearly white fabric, meant to saturate in medigel once the rest of the suit was on. A second layer of coarse grey fabric would then saturate in omnigel, acting as a quick way to seal armour breaches, and the third layer was a metallic mesh that would cling to the second, with armour plates welded to their respective places. The shield module was attached to the small of the armour's back to keep it away from the main line of fire it would probably receive. Nicolas pursed his lips as he stripped and tried it on, letting Hal interface with the life support and shielding systems.

"It feels a bit on the light side," the human remarked as the layers tightened around his body and the armour plates shifted into place.

"That's because it's not charged with medi or omnigel yet. Get the canisters out of Korvos' crate," Hal instructed.

Nicolas opened the crate he'd come with and took out a large grey tube and a transparent green pouch. Attaching them to a universal port on his right forearm, the recipients emptied quickly into the suit and a wave of goosebumps covered Nicolas as the cold medigel seeped into the first layer of the suit. His arms and shoulders started to weigh down on him as well as the suit saturated in omnigel.

"The shielding system can be redirected to provide more protection in areas more likely to get shot at. Get the micro cameras from the crate and weld one of them to your right forearm and the other to your left shoulder," Hal said through the helmet's speaker, which was lying on the human's bed, "That way I can see your surroundings and manage the shield system.

"What would I do without you, Hal?" Nicolas smiled as he looked at the helmet, which also seemed disappointingly light and flimsy.

"You would've died from blood loss after getting your legs shot off by a batarian," Hal replied in a very matter-of-fact tone.

"Ok, this got really dark, _really_ quickly," Nicolas looked down at his legs, concealed by the armour. He rocked his weight from his heals to the balls of his feet idly before looking at Korvos' crate again, "So what else did we buy?"

"We have tungsten cubes, medigel, explosives, standard multipurpose grenades, a shotgun, a silencer module for your pistol, grey spray paint for the armour and Kevlar pouches to attach to your armour and carry everything. Organize everything so we can go and scout the mercenaries. Aria sent us pretty much all the info there is on them, so we won't have to do much research."

"Oh, Hal. You make me feel like Blasto."

"Just make sure you shoot like him later."

* * *

 **So that was chapter 5! I wasn't able to write much these past few weeks. Exam season has come, and it is not pulling its punches!**

 **Let me know what you think!**


	6. Chapter 6

**Chapter 6! Enjoy!**

 **Everything in this fanfic is owned by Bioware. No copyright infringement intended.**

* * *

Garrus smiled to himself as he paced around his apartment. Most of the furniture had already been sold off for really good money. _Who would've thought that fighting alongside the saviour of the citadel would make my dining table twice as valuable!_ He walked over to the foam mattress in his bedroom and looked over the belongings he had organized on top of it.

Garrus tapped his chin as he listed everything, "New rifle, new handgun, heat sinks, old rifle, old handgun, tungsten cubes, armour, medigel, rations, omnitool… where the hell did I put my visor?" The turian's eyes went wide as his eyes darted from one corner of the room to the other. He raised his hand to slap his forehead when he felt the metal of the visor on his face. Chuckling, he took a datapad from the back pocket of his pants, re-checking the ticket he'd bought to go to Omega.

"Three hours… I can make a quick lunch before I go," He muttered to himself as he walked into the living room and turned on the cooking unit.

…

Garrus stood up from his shuttle seat armoured and armed and walked out into the streets of Omega. The stench of Vorcha, levo-food and vomit filled his nostrils even through his helmet as he headed for the rapid transit terminal. He input the coordinates he wanted the sky-car to take him to and threw his duffel bag inside before jumping in himself. The vehicle lifted off, heading for the higher levels of the space station. Garrus brought up the file on Omega's local boss of the Blue Suns, Tarak on his omnitool. The batarian's mugshot grimaced at him and Garrus gave the picture a sneer as Omega's lights flashed outside. _I'll get you soon enough,_ he reassured himself _._

The turian knew he couldn't just go up to the man and kill him. Tarak would be replaced and nothing would be accomplished. He had to destroy the Blue suns on all its levels, but an endeavour like that required planning, funds, and at least an extra pair of hands. During his years in C-sec, he had created a large base of contacts amongst the criminal world of the galaxy, but Omega was uncharted territory for him, much like all of the Terminus. He needed to get contacts, informants and allies, and for that he needed to get his hands dirty. The turian hummed a melody reminiscent of his childhood as he went over the biggest steps of his plan. A mercenary company was starting up on Omega and growing rapidly. Too rapidly to be growing just of their own efforts, so they had to have a financial backer who was giving them ridiculous amounts of funds. He landed a job as cannon fodder (it was the best he could do with a fake ID and zero experience to show for), where he would start building his network and save as much money as he could. After a few months he would use the funds he'd previously accrued from being Garrus to leave the company and take his most trusted to actually get to destroying the Blue Suns in Omega.

The sky-car landed and Garrus jumped off, pepped up from going over his master plan. A turian in full armour walked up to him, rifle in hand. Garrus eyed the weapon as his visor scanned it, revealing that it was the best model of the Carniflex line, updated with the new disposable heat sink system. He smiled to himself, thanking the Geth for accidentally giving organics the idea of disposable clips. _At least we gained something from the battle against Sovereign._

"This level is off limits, boy. Property of Omicron Company. If you want to hire services, go to the office in the next level," the approaching turian's gravelly voice crackled through the helmet speakers. Garrus identified the tone to be characteristic of an older turian.

"I work here, _old man,"_ Garrus adjusted the duffel bag slung over his shoulder, "I'm here to see Tarkon about my first job… and accommodation."

The older turian huffed at being called old man. After a second, he brought up his omnitool, "Your name, whelp?"

"Docimus Kryik," Garrus crossed his arms and tapped his foot on the ground impatiently as the other turian looked over a list before nodding and stepping to the side, tilting his head in the direction Garrus needed to go.

…

"Hi, I'm Do-"

"Yeah, Kryik, I know. Tarkon, pleased to meet you or whatever. Old man Juvinis told me you were coming. Sit down," Tarkon the salarian was typing furiously away on a datapad. He tilted his head towards a chair in front of him without taking his eyes of the holographic display. Garrus sat down without saying a word, "I see you have your own equipment. That's good, since your contract says you won't get any from us until the scheduled renewal in three months. Are you aware of the fact that denying a job means contract termination? You signed it, so I suppose you do. You look like a smart kid," Tarkon still refused to look up from his datapad.

Garrus grunted, not knowing what else to say. The salarian continued, "You're going to need a locker and a key to your room. It's on the next level. Here's the key to the locker. Don't lose it or you'll get a penalty on your paycheck. The door to your room has been configured to open automatically and blah, blah, blah. Go and leave whatever you won't be using and come back for your first job."

The turian reached out to grab the key that was thrown on the desk and the Salarian's big eyes shot up to look at Garrus, "What are you waiting for, Turian? I've got stuff to do and I can't work with you fidgeting about. Go, go!"

Shaking his head, Garrus uttered a quick ' _Spirits!'_ as he grabbed the key and stood up, storming off to the stairs leading up to the barracks where he would be staying.

…

"Ah! Decimus Krook!" Tarkon the salarian looked up from his desk for half a moment before digging around a pile of datapads.

"It's uh… Docimus Kr-"

"I don't give a damn, Decimus. Here's your first job. It's in the lower levels. All the info is on the datapad so there's no use in us talking anymore. Get going. Fuck off," the salarian went back to looking at his screen, reusming his frenetic typing pace.

Garrus's nostrils flared and his mandibles tightened around his face. His hands ached to punch some teeth out of the salarian's mouth but he turned around and left for the rapid transit station instead. He squeezed the sides of the datapad to channel his anger into something until the device protested with a pressure warning and he was more able to read through the mission description. He was to guard a party being held by a Batarian extremist group… somehow he felt Tarkon didn't even read through the mission details. _At least the pay is decent._

…

"They sent us a fucking skullface to watch over our event?" One of the participating Batarians tilted his head to the side in a Batarian insult as he made the rhetoric question to Garrus.

The music inside the building he was supposed to guard made his head throb, and the guests weren't helping at all. The contract said he could leave the place if the patrons physically assaulted him, but that he had to respect their prejudices. The customer was always right, after all. After a couple of hours, however, Garrus started to wonder what physical assault actually counted for. The nicest guests would limit themselves to sneering or baring their teeth at the turian. Others resorted to offensive remarks, like the popular term skullface or spat on the ground near his boots. The worst ones were the mockers: the batarians that would make the best out of the contract, bullying the turian, in attempts to obtain a reaction. Insults were thrown his way to no end, and he was glad he had his helmet on so the aliens wouldn't get the satisfaction of seeing his helpless glare.

"I swear I'm gonna ask for extra pay when I get back. This is ridiculous."

…

"Ah, Decimus. The client said you did an excellent job for a… let's say 'Turian' is what he said. Your funds have been transferred. Here's a dinner voucher. You sure have earned it! Now get going, I'm busy."

Garrus didn't need to answer, let alone want to. He picked the nano-carbide film that was the voucher from the Salarian's outstretched hand quickly before heading for the mess hall on the lower level. People of all races sat at long tables, sucking on vacuum sealed packs of various different shades of metallic brown. The turian walked over to the food dispensing machine and slipped his voucher into a port. A menu of various Turian delicacies came up on a holoscreen and Garrus raised a brow-plate questioningly. Selecting the simplest dish, wary that anything complicated might taste horribly wrong, a brown bag similar to the ones his colleagues were eating from was dispensed from the machine. Garrus picked it up and felt the warmth permeate through his gloves as he made his way to an empty table. Opening a corner of the bag as he sat down, he sucked in the pureed dish (which actually didn't taste too far off from the real thing) from the brown bag. A salarian walked up to his table and sat in front of him. Garrus hummed with curiosity, acknowledging his new companion.

"So you're the new recruit, Decimus?"

"Docimus," Garrus answered dryly, tired of everyone he'd spoken to up to now mucking up his name.

The salarian rubbed its chin, "Huh, that's odd… Juvinis said you were called Decimus."

"Who, the turian guard? He's wrong," the turian mumbled.

"Ooooh, someone's being a moody varren. Long day?"

"Had to guard a batarian meeting in the lower levels," Garrus rested his head on his palm as he took another sip from the bag.

"Why the hell did you think taking a job with batarians was a good idea?" The salarian raised its eyebrows in disbelief.

"I didn't. Tarkon gave it to me."

The salarian chuckled, "Ah, yes. The probation period. I heard they did that for the newer recruits. Bummer, huh? Anyways, my name is Untar. I've got a room in the barracks with some pals from work, and one of the beds recently became vacant. Working hazard, you know the drill. I came here to offer you the spot, unless you want to sleep in the higher level," the salarian lowered his voice to a whisper, "the batarians are sticking together in that level, but there is an empty room where I guess they wouldn't bother you."

Garrus furrowed his brow plates, going over his options. After today he really just wanted to be relaxed and alone, so he smiled at Untar and denied the offer before getting up and going for his locker.

The empty room on the higher level of the facility had recently been stripped of the main components of the lighting unit, as well as the couches on most of the bunk beds, save one. There used to be a cooling unit for beverages in the corner, but it had been dragged off into another room. As Garrus sat on the last intact bed, he could hear his batarian neighbours listening to music and drinking, probably having cold drinks from the cooling unit they'd surely stolen from his room. He sighed before laying down and doing his best to go to sleep.

...

The sound of footsteps creeping on the other side of the ceiling woke Garrus up. The turian sat up and looked around groggily as he squinted to make out his surroundings. He wracked his mind thinking about the layout of the barracks and came to the conclusion there was no other room above them. Someone was walking along the roof. He didn't think much of it but stayed alert, paying careful attention to the footsteps. They stopped after a moment, and Garrus was about to fall asleep again when the taddle-tale whistle of a silenced shot came from afar, interrupting the silence. He stood up and drew his handgun from under his pillow. Stalking to the entrance of his room, he used his omnitool to disable the locks on his door and made the opening mechanism go into manual mode. The turian pulled the door open slowly to minimize the noise and peaked out into the corridor outside. The lights were off, but his keen eyesight made it easy to navigate. He headed for the stairs that lead up to the roof and listened intently. There was no sound coming from anywhere, so he crept up the stairs. When he reached the door leading out, he noticed it had been opened the same way he did on the door to his own room. He crept outside onto the roof and Omega's lights and sounds came rushing to meet him.

Garrus squinted as his eyes adjusted to the light. Standing on the rooftop, He checked his belt for extra thermal clips before looking around. A streak of red on the floor caught his attention. Walking over to it, he knew it was blood. The streak tapered off going around an air conditioning unit and Garrus followed it. The droplets zig-zagged around different pipes meant to carry water and electric wires, heading for the backside of the building. Garrus huffed as he saw the trail end at the edge, and he peeked over to see the figure of a dead turian on the ground, three stories down. _Juvinis_.

A silenced gunshot rang from inside the building, and Garrus jogged, gun raised back to the entrance. Another one came as he descended the stairs into the darkness. As his eyes adjusted, he stalked around the building. His heart raced as he turned corners, unable to find anyone in the corridors. The sound of a silenced shot made him gasp and whirl around in the direction it came from. He stalked at a brisk pace in that direction when two, then three more rang along the corridor. They were coming from his neighbouring room. He kept his gun raised and looked at the radar on his visor but there was nothing to be shown until a jamming warning appeared on his HUD.

 _I've got you now,_ he thought to himself as he peeked into the room. He made out the dead mercs inside, but there was nothing else out of the ordinary. Garrus burst into the room, sweeping through it efficiently. Finding nothing he turned around to search the rest of the building when he noticed a small light blinking on the floor. He approached carefully until he was sure it wasn't an explosive. The light was attached to a small black plastic box with an antenna. Picking it up, Garrus knew immediately what it was: a radar jammer. At that moment, his heart began racing when a yell began and was abruptly cut off by another muffled gunshot whistle. He ran into the corridor and sprinted towards the room where the noise came from. He was growing tired of playing cat and mouse, especially since he was losing.

…

Nicolas crept out of the room as Hal informed him one merc was heading towards him. He just needed to kill another roomful of them before he could move on to destroying property and getting the hell out of there. Hal, having tapped into the CCTV network of the building, instructed him to keep going until his first door. He made quick work of the sleeping batarians and laid down behind one of the dead mercs, waiting for the pesky turian who was awake and chasing him. The door opened silently, and Nicolas watched the shadow of the merc move along the wall beside him. He raised his gun and pointed straight at the back of the turian's head as it looked over the other dead mercs. Its shields would shrug off the first shot, which was unacceptable, as he'd lose the element of surprise and soon all the others would be alerted to his presence. He had to get close, and quickly. In one swift movement, he vaulted over the dead batarian and sprinted towards the turian, gun raised, but just as quickly, the turian turned around, his blue visor glowing in the dark. With a strong back handed blow, Nicolas' gun was sent flying, but the human was prepared for that and tackled the turian. The two crashed against the wall behind the larger alien as it raised a leg to kick Nicolas away. Remembering Garrus' training on the Normandy, he batted the leg away as it stretched and used his other hand to deliver a swift punch behind the turian's mandible, then another to the face, making it drop its gun. He ducked down to swipe the turian's legs out from under him, but it twisted in the air as it fell, grabbing Nicolas' armour collar on the way down. Overpowering the human, the turian grabbed Nicolas' helmet and drove it against the wall, cracking the visor and dazing him. The alien then dashed towards Nicolas' gun as the human came back to his senses and dove after the turian.

The two struggled as Nicolas tried in vain to disarm the turian when it aligned the gun to aim directly at his foot. It was able to squeeze out two silenced shots, which dented and then pierced the boot. The turian, surprised at Nicolas' absence of reaction, gave him the perfect opening for a head butt, which Nicolas took. The impact bent the turian's blue visor. Nicolas kicked the alien away and expanded his rifle, pointing it straight at the turian's face, which now looked all too familiar.

"Big Bird?" Nicolas' question was almost completely muffled by the helmet, but he didn't need an answer. The turian standing against the wall was undeniably Garrus. His gun remained pointed at the turian's forehead out of shear surprise. Not like he would notice anyway, it seemed like the head butt really hurt. A moment later, the turian groaned and nodded as Nicolas collapsed the rifle and put it on his back.

Garrus looked up eyed Nicolas' armour, "you're lucky I can hear you through your helmet, Broom head, or I would've kept fighting."

Nicolas scoffed as Hal partially raised his visor so his words could be heard clearly, "I pretty much had you beat. You shouldn't have taught me what I know."

"Yeah, I never thought I'd regret it," Garrus shook his head before his eyes went wide as the situation registered in his brain, "And what the _hell_ are you doing?"

"Working… Anonymously. So you'd better keep your mouth shut about who I am," Nicolas closed his visor and Hal activated the speakers at the lowest volume.

Garrus squinted at Nicolas, his mandibles hugging his face tightly in a suspicious expression, "For who?"

Nicolas shuffled uncomfortably as he looked at his friend, "Someone who can get me to the Normandy's crash site."

The turian exhaled through his nose. His mind was racing through the people who could have that kind of information on Omega. The merc companies didn't have contact with the Shadow Broker unless they were receiving contracts, and there weren't many more powerful people on the station. He looked straight into the dark visor, where the human's eyes were, "You're working for _Aria."_

"We shouldn't talk of this here, Garrus, let's arrange some place to meet. After that, you need to go back to sleep. I'm still not done here," Nicolas looked towards the closed door behind him.

" _Like hell_ I'm going back to sleep," Garrus took a step towards Nicolas, raising a hand and poking him square in the chest, " _we_ are going to finish your job and get somewhere quiet, where you're going to tell me everything you've been up to, or I make a scene and the mercs downstairs come _upstairs_. You don't want that, right?" Garrus added a smile to the last part of his sentence, trying to show Nicolas he was kidding.

Nicolas sneered behind the cracked visor as Hal expanded the rifle behind his back, "Don't make me do something rash, Garrus."

The turian's eyes shot to the exposed stock of Nicolas' weapon and back to the visor, "Alright, Nicolas… I don't know what that asari has gotten into your head, but this isn't the way to deal with things. Let me help you with your job and then we talk things over, ok?"

Hal collapsed the rifle as he noticed Nicolas' heartrate lower. The human exhaled through his nose and closed his eyes, taking a deep breath, "Ok, we need to destroy half the weapons in this building. I also need to snap mugshots of the guys I've killed. There have to be thirty."

"Did you bring explosives?"

Nicolas smiled under the visor as he patted the pockets on his thighs, "A shit ton."

Garrus' mandibles parted into a turian grin, "Let's get to work, then."

…

Garrus raised his hand to his helmet as he crouched in the darkness, a small red light twinkling in front of the blue shine of his dimmed visor, "My charge is set, broom head. What about you?"

"I'm ready as well," came the response from the radio, "meet me at these coordinates."

The turian sneaked out of the facility through the rooftop, climbing down the side of the building and jogging down an alleyway to where Nicolas had instructed him. The human's dark figure was barely visible in the shadow of a dumpster bolted to a wall. Nicolas tossed a detonator to the turian, which he didn't hesitate on pressing. Half a second later, a muffled explosion came from the mercs' building.

"Reminds me of Virmire," Garrus smiled with nostalgia.

"Good times," Nicolas agreed.

Garrus hummed idly for a moment before coming back to the here and now, "So what are you trying to do?"

"The alliance wouldn't move a finger to retrieve Shepard's corpse, so I'm here finding out where she is so I can do the right thing and bury her like the hero she was."

Garrus brought a hand up to his lower jaw, rubbing the tip of a mandible, "I can't argue with your endgame. What I find questionable is your means to the end. I do get that no one else in the Terminus is likely to know apart from the Shadow Broker… Last thing I wanted was for you to get tangled with the scum of Omega, broom head."

"Aria's not too bad. She's been fair to me, and she's giving me what I want," Nicolas pursed his lips as he realized this was his last job before finding Shepard, "I just have to do this one thing and then Shepard's location will be mine," he looked up at the turian, his brow furrowed, "Why are you here, anyway?"

"C-sec tired me for the same reason I got on the Normandy. Too much red-tape, too many bad guys getting away because of bureaucracy and politics. I had enough of it, and now I came _here_ to make a difference."

"Well aren't you a fucking angel?" Nicolas shook his head bitterly thinking back on all the messed up things he'd seen since he arrived, "Omega is beyond saving, Garrus, what difference do you wanna make?"

"I want to destroy the Blue Suns' operations here, but I'll need more men… and firepower."

"I hate to break it to you, Garrus, but it can't be done. The Suns are too big, and they'll never stop sending people to keep it up. They won't stop until there are no more recruits in the galaxy or you end up dead. This isn't a place for heroes, Garrus."

"I take it you won't be joining my cause, then?" the turian crossed his arms.

Nicolas shook his head, "I've had enough of all this. I'll try to disappear once Shepard's been buried."

"Aria won't let you."

A spark of anger ignited in Nicolas. He didn't acknowledge it, but the Turian noticed, "Don't act like you know her, Garrus. I won't get in the way of your deluded dreams if you stay out of my way. I'm leaving."

The turian kept his mouth shut as the human disappeared into the darkness. He shook his head, "What has that asari done to you?" before heading back to the facility.

…

Garrus threw pieces of rubble to the side as he looked for survivors or weapons. He heard the grunts of a struggling alien under what was left of the armoury's wall. He pulled it up to find the salarian that spoke to him in the mess hall.

"Docimus! Thank the Maker you're here!" the salarian smiled showing green bloodied teeth, "I thought I was a goner for sure!"

"Well, you aren't, Untar. Any idea who did this?" Garrus asked as he helped the salarian up.

"I shouldn't be saying this, but I'm pretty sure it was Aria. She'd been lending the company money since it started, and I guess it grew too quickly for her taste. We haven't made any enemies this strong as far as I know, and I know a lot," Untar lamented as he looked around, "I'm done with Omicron Company. It was a stupid decision to get involved with that asari bitch."

"What are you gonna do, then?" Garrus followed the salarian as it walked over to a pile of rubble and started digging.

"I think I'll just go freelance… as soon as I find some guns. These bastards surely won't pay back for what I lost in the explosion. What about you?"

"I actually have a proposition for you," Garrus smiled as he opened his omnitool to find a notification of a deposit containing half the credits Nicolas looted from the mercs he'd killed.

…

Nicolas walked over to his bed and let himself fall on the mattress, bouncing off the springs as the bed squeaked from the extra strain the weight of his armour caused. He opened his omnitool and sent Aria the footage of the explosion and the mugshots of the dead mercs before falling asleep.

…

 _Nicolas opened his eyes and found himself in a sleeping pod on the Normandy. He warily walked out into the mess hall. Half of the starboard hull was missing, and he could see the stars glowing past the kinetic barrier holding the air in. It felt normal to him as he walked on towards the cryo-pods. A figure stood at the end of the corridor, typing away on the monitor that controlled the distress beacon._

 _A voice echoed in Nicolas' head, "Distress beacon activated. Maybe someone will come for me."_

" _Shepard?" Nicolas asked as he approached the figure. It turned around to reveal the face of Jane, half covered by her helmet's visor._

" _You left me to die here, alone."_

 _Nicolas' eyes welled up as he shook his head, "No. No. I'm looking for you, honey. I'll find you soon."_

 _Suddenly, Shepard clutched at her neck, choking. She fell to her knees and Nicolas ran towards her, but he wasn't able to close the distance. She cried out between choked coughs and gags, "You let me die here, alone."_

 _Nicolas shook his head as he kept running, inching closer and closer to Jane, "They wouldn't tell me where you are. It's not my fault!"_

 _Shepard's helmet vanished and she looked up at Nicolas as he was almost at arms-reach, "You don't care that I'm dead."_

 _Baker sobbed as Shepard turned to ashes and crumbled into nothing when his finger touched her chin._

 _A voice echoed in his head as his mind bubbled back into consciousness,_ "You don't care that I'm dead."

* * *

 **So that was a big silent period... I apologize (exams and the subsequent vacation made it difficult to find the time to write)**

 **I hope you enjoyed the chapter anyways. Let me know what you think!**


	7. Chapter 7

**Chapter 7! Enjoy!**

 **Everything in this fanfic is owned by Bioware. No copyright infringement intended.**

* * *

Beads of sweat ran down Nicolas' face as he bolted upright in his bed, the neck of his armour wet as the filtration system of the suit absorbed the moisture for an isotonic water supply. His omnitool had a notification icon glowing over his forearm and Hal gave an introductory crackling through Nicolas' translator to not startle the waking human.

"Had a bad dream? Aria sent a message while you slept." Hal's voice was low and carried soothing undertones designed to lower Nicolas' heartrate.

He sighed before swiping his palm over the icon, bringing the omnitool to life, displaying the message: _The ship is waiting in dock 04, level 51. The password file to the airlock is attached. A crew is standing by._

Nicolas didn't need anything else to get up. With a quick groan and a couple popping joints, he got up and got a ration bar from the duffel bag that laid underneath the heating unit of his apartment. He went for the shower discarding his armour in the ten steps it took to get there and ate as he showered. Hal expected to have to remind Nicolas of all the things they would need for the trip, but the human, wordless and unhesitant, went about the apartment putting his armour on and stuffing his pouches with what they had bought from Korvos the Vorcha and attaching his weapons to the magnetic holsters on his back and thigh.

Nicolas was almost out of the apartment when a voice came from behind him, from the bathroom.

 _Shepard won't be there, you know?_

Baker stopped. He turned around to look at his reflection in the mirror. His eyes explored his reflection and stopped at the helmet in the mirror, held magnetically onto the belt of the reflected Nicolas. The voice came again, low and gravelly.

 _She won't._

"Nicolas, is something wrong?" Hal asked, aware of the fact that Nicolas had turned around from the cameras on the suit.

"No… no… I just thought I heard something," the human whispered weakly before putting his helmet on and leaving the building.

…

"Oh-two-five-one, oh-three-five-one, oh-four-five-one…" Nicolas whispered to himself as he walked into dock 51. The other levels were bustling with life, but this one was eerily empty. Nicolas noticed the security cameras were all destroyed, even though it wasn't much to say as all the other levels had cameras in what one would call 'precarious' states.

He swiped his omnitool over the holo-lock on the frigate of uncertain origin (it didn't look of batarian or turian make, but it was definitely alien) and a pop-up message appeared on top of the holo-display: _They don't know you're you. Put your helmet on. I instructed them to shoot you if they can tell me your name._

Nicolas raised his brows at the bluntness of the message and put his helmet on and darkened the full-face visor. Hal created a voice filter as the door opened and Nicolas walked in to find an empty but cramped on his left and a slim corridor leading to the command centre. He decided to not to call out for anyone. The more they knew about him, the more certain they could be of who he was, so he walked calmly to the crew quarters with Hal's guidance. He reached the small navigation desk when the crew emerged. A turian sneered at Nicolas as he passed by, followed by a sleepy one, an old man and a batarian. They all walked wordlessly to their posts, the turians to the cockpit and the human and batarian to the navigation centre. One of the turians spoke over the intercom:

"So we're going to the coordinates Aria gave us. That okay with you, human?"

Nicolas responded an uninterested yes as the shuttle detached from omega.

…

Nicolas had stood perfectly still behind the old man, eyeing the holo-displays he could see without moving his head. Hal had detected a slowly climbing heart-rate but decided to not distract Nicolas from being inconspicuous.

Twenty minutes had passed before he broke the bored silence of the crew, "What the fuck is taking so long?" his voice rumbled low and lightly distorted.

"We're waiting for permission to use the Relay," the batarian muttered from his post.

"We're working for Aria, aren't we? Why aren't we getting priority access?" Nicolas responded without turning his head.

A turian's voice came over the intercom with an annoyed tone, "We're not officially working for her. Just sit your ass down and wait, human."

Nicolas kicked the armchair beside him and two bolts holding it in place snapped. His legs hissed in protest but were muffled by the armour. The batarian and human were staring at Baker, and he wasn't getting less restless. Hal talked into his translator, "Go to the crew quarters, Nicolas."

"I'll fix it later. Tell me when we're there," He snapped before turning around and walking into the quarters.

The batarian turned to his console and called Aria, "He's really pissed for some reason. Can't handle the waiting line to jump."

Aria's voice was set to minimum on the display's speakers, "Interesting. Keep an eye on him."

…

Nicolas paced around the crew's quarters. He would stop for a moment whenever he felt the illusion of movement before he realized it was just that, an illusion. After what seemed like hours, he sat down on the floor and proceeded to check his guns. The mechanical disassembly and assembly of the parts helped him calm down. When he was halfway through the pistol, a turian voice came over the intercom, "Preparing for Relay jump. Brace for acceleration in 10 seconds."

Nicolas put a hand over the small pieces that were left as the tremors shook the ship until they were in the zero-mass tunnel formed between Relays. There were a few more jumps on the way and he finished putting the gun back together in between them. He stood up during one of the jumps when he heard a gravelly voice come from over his shoulder.

 _I'm telling you, she won't be there._

Nicolas whispered, "Shut up," behind the muted helmet.

 _I mean, do you think the Shadow Broker was going to give the asari bitch the info before giving it to someone else?_

"Shut up."

"Nicolas, what's going on?" Hal spoke over the translator, re-reading Chakwas' medical reports from the Normandy, wracking his virtual mind for what could help Nicolas.

 _Trust me, man. You don't need Shepard anyway. This is just a waste of time._

Nicolas sat down and put his head in his hands, breathing deeply, trying to lower his heartrate, "I need to see it at least. Just leave me alone until this is over."

 _Suit yourself, dipshit. I'll be back._

Baker sat like that for what seemed like minutes before dozing off. He woke a couple of hours later when the intercom came back to life with the turian's voice, "Final jump complete. Welcome to the Amada system."

The human sat up and walked out of the quarters, heading straight for the cockpit. He stood behind the two turians, which sat glued to their respective displays. He broke the silence as the dark sea of stars twinkled outside the viewports.

"What planet are we going to?" came Nicolas' distorted voice from the speakers on the collarbone of his armour.

"Alchera. Ice planet. 0.8 standard Citadel gravity and -22°C average surface temperature. We'll be looking at gusts of around 20 knots where the distress beacon is supposed to be located, at least from the data we were given," one of the turians answered.

"Can we land there?" asked the human, wondering why the distress beacon wasn't active. He thought back to the last vidcall he had with Jane, remembering the ice that was melting off her armour.

The same turian nodded, "The terrain is fairly flat. We should be able to park the ship down, but we'll need to keep the core running to reduce mass."

"How much of what we salvage will we be able to bring back?" Nicolas asked as he turned around to stand by the airlock as Alchera turned from distant, dim star to asteroid size to planet in the viewport.

"The cargo-hold was emptied out, so I'd say around ten tonnes, as long as there is ten tonnes left for us to bring back."

…

The frigate extended thick metallic legs, which compressed and decompressed to allow for a soft landing. The rugged ice underneath cracked under the weight before the eezo-core went into assisted hovering mode and the suspension coils on the legs relaxed. A boarding ramp rolled out of the airlock, leading to the ground below. The blast-doors cycled and the crew came out, all except for the batarian, who stayed to keep the ship going and to watch out for company.

Nicolas' helmet accumulated condensation at the edges of the visor, and he could feel the cold of the planet's atmosphere permeate through the glass, chilling his nose. Hal used the on-suit radar system and the camera on his shoulder to assist navigating the snowy terrain and finding the remains of the Normandy. The mostly-destroyed ship was highlighted in Nicolas' HUD and he trudged towards it in a bee-line as the rest of the crew eyed the silent man walking into the snow.

"Where's he headed?" one of the turian's whispered.

"Almost seems like he's been here before," the other human commented as he went around the ship to get the 'wheelbarrow'.

"Oh, I see, he found the ship," the other turian muttered, "must have pretty good eyesight, and it looks like the snow isn't slowing him down."

"Who knows, he might have bionic legs or something," came an off-hand comment over the radio from the old human.

Nicolas continued walking through the thigh high snow, leaving a deep trail in it behind him. The Normandy was clearly visible through the snowy wind at this point, and the sight was not promising. The hull had multiple holes with structural beams jutting out of the surface every few meters. One of the wings was missing and the nose was nowhere to be seen.

"Life support systems are straining, Nicolas. Go somewhere where you can shield yourself from the wind," Hal spoke into the translator.

"I thought the turian said the average was -22."

"Exactly, _average._ It's -50 here. The rest of the crew is getting thermal blankets but you left too early."

"It's better this way. Now they can't see what I'm looking for."

…

The noise of the wind was the only sound the crew heard as they walked silently towards the Normandy's wreck. One of the turians flexed his mandibles within the helmet in irritation as the old human kept his radio channel open, broadcasting the sound of his breathing incessantly.

"You could turn your helmet mic off, human."

The old man looked at the turian as they trudged through the snow, "You could've parked the ship closer to the wreck, turian."

The other turian shook his head good-naturedly before eyeing the wreckage, twenty metres ahead. The human Aria sent was pacing between the two largest pieces of the crashed ship, looking around himself desperately, clawing and banging at the top of his helmet as he went. He wasn't transmitting over the radio and his helmet speakers seemed to be deactivated. The wind made it hard to be certain if he was saying anything anyway. The turian opened his omnitool and called Aria.

"…Yes?" came the asari's voice.

"You're gonna wanna look at this," the turian muttered as he activated his helmet's camera and sent the live feed to Aria.

…

"Where _is_ she?!" Nicolas looked around frantically. He saw the mako embedded into a mound of ice and snow, but there was no Shepard to be seen. The wrecked galaxy map was also barren of any organic material, as well as the remains of the mess hall. Nicolas spied the cockpit of the Normandy a couple dozen meters away and sprinted towards it.

The dark, gravelly voice came back: _I told you she was gone._

"She has to be here somewhere. The whole goddamn ship is here!" Nicolas protested as he reached the cockpit. Everything inside was destroyed, except the airlock, which seemed to be intact.

"She's not here, Nicolas," Hal sounded sad as he spoke into the translator but the human wasn't ready to give up yet.

"No, there has to be something left! Wait, what is that?" Nicolas stopped dead in his tracks when he saw the distinct glint of something metallic, like a coin.

"It's probably exposed electronics, Nicolas," came Hal's response.

"No... no, no, Hal. This," Nicolas murmured as he approached the object, before picking up a tungsten plate, "this is a dogtag... it's not hers though," he commented before dropping it to the ground and walking out of the cockpit, eyes locked looking down.

One of Aria's crew walked past the oblivious human into the cockpit and eyed the dog tag on the floor. He called Aria to notify her.

"Send me the names on the dog tags he ignores," Aria said from her side as the booming bass of Afterlife rang in the background.

...

The better part of an hour passed as Nicolas walked around, picking through the rubble and combing through the snow as the rest of the crew followed his steps discreetly, cutting off pieces of hull and scanning various systems for reverse engineering as they went.

 _Give up, dipshit. Grab something from the Mako before life support fails._

Baker had no more reasons to not listen so he trudged over to the vehicle that had no signs of damage apart from a couple of scuffs on the hull and a blown tire. The back blastdoor hissed open after he input the still remembered code to the holo-display. He walked in and kicked a panel on the inside wall absentmindedly. The panel popped off and a survival kit fell to the floor. Nicolas grabbed a thermal blanket and tied it around the collar of his armour before fastening the fabric with omnigel to his wrists, wrapping his arms.

A turian called Aria and turned off his radio, "he opened the mako without hacking the door and took out a survival kit. It looked like he knew where it was."

"So it's like he's seen all this before," Aria muttered from her side of the line, "this just keeps getting better. Has he found any more dogtags?"

"Negative."

"Alright. Send me a list of the ones he's found. Come back when you've collected whatever you think we could use."

The turian dropped his hand from his helmet and looked at the old human, returning for the fifth time with an empty wheelbarrow. His eyes wandered to the overcast sky, a dark grey background dotted by the uncountable white snowflakes whizzing by. The batarian back at the ship called him over comms.

"What's up?" asked the turian.

"There's a ship incoming. It exited FTL at the border of the system half an hour ago, and it's coming this way. ETA 45 minutes unless they enter FTL again, but I think they need to discharge first," came the batarian's response.

"Alright. We're on our way."

...

The old human approached Nicolas as one of the turians took the wheelbarrow back to the ship.

"We have to go pal, a ship's coming."

Baker snapped upright looking at the sky. Hal activated his suit speakers as he opened his mouth, "Who are they?"

The human shrugged impatiently, "Don't know, don't matter. We have to bail."

Nicolas shook his head, "They have to know something about the wreckage to come here. We have to question them."

The remaining turian butted in to the conversation, "We're leaving, human."

Baker shook his head again, "Info on the wreck could be invaluable."

The turian raised his shotgun pointing towards Nicolas' helmet and the old human followed suit without hesitation, "We're leaving, _now_."

With a huff, the three jogged back to the ship, which lifted off as soon as the boarding ramp had retracted into the airlock. The eezo core struggled to keep up as the frigate left the atmosphere, and Nicolas paced around the command centre as the ice melted off his thermal blanket and armour.

"Anybody been able to scan the incoming ship?" he asked.

The batarian spoke up, "I'm going through the known signatures... Chord Hislop... overcharged eezo core... they're Cerberus! Good thing we bailed in time. We can't take them with our weapons."

"What's a pro-human terrorist group doing way out here? They _have_ to know something we don't," thought Nicolas. He paced straight for the cockpit behind the piloting turian's, grabbing the back of their seats, "turn the ship around. We sneak up on them while we're down there."

"Yeah, big fucking chance of that happening, human. We had orders from Aria to get back intact, and I'm planning on following through with that," the turian's reply seemed final, so Nicolas stormed off towards the crew quarters.

…

"We have to get to that ship, Hal. Cerberus has to know something."

"The turian is right, Nicolas. The ship doesn't have the adequate weaponry to survive a battle against a Cerberus vessel," came the AI's response.

Baker stopped dead in his tracks as he looked at the door leading into the CIC, then to a viewport behind him, on the backside of the ship, "Maybe the ship doesn't need to survive. Can you intercept the Cerberus Ship and crash this one into it?"

"That would be suicide. Even If we could get past its shields, the Cerberus ship would be disabled and this one destroyed along with us."

"But if we're going at subsonic speeds, we would bypass the shield systems, right?" His eyes were wide open behind his visor, a hysterical grin forming.

"Yes, but the fact still remains that we'll be destroyed with the ship, Nicolas," Hal sounded impatient, exasperated at Nicolas' insistence.

"If I jettison out the back cargo hatch, how fast will I escape the ship?" The human gesticulated towards the back viewport even though no one was watching.

"…please tell me you're not doing what I think you want to do."

Nicolas thought back to the batarian pirates intercepted the ship where he met Hal, "I can't do it unless you take over the ship, Hal. Can you intercept the Cerberus ship and have the remains stay in orbit around Alchera?"

There came a clicking sound from the translator much like the one that would come from twentieth century computers when they processed information. Hal finally talked again after a minute, "Just get your ass to the cargo bay and get the back hatch ready for emergency breach."

…

Nicolas looked around the cargo bay, handgun in his hand and his assault rifle attached to his back along with the sniper rifle. Piles of Normandy debris had been dumped at random places of the floor. There were pieces of the hull, several metres of different kinds of cable and samples of various materials. Kicking over different pieces of the junk that had been strewn around, Nicolas made his way to the back of the cargo bay, where a hatch painted over in white and red strips to symbolize an emergency exit was waiting. He sat down lazily against it, resting his arms on his knees and tapping the barrel of the gun against his helmet absentmindedly, the gun's safety activated by Hal.

The AI spoke over Nicolas' translator, "I'm going to take over the ship shortly. Hold on to something. We're gonna collide and fall into orbit in roughly three minutes."

…

Aria sat at her balcony in Afterlife, scrolling up and down a list of names on her datapad. On another datapad next to her thigh was the crew of the Normandy at the time of its crash on Alchera. She deleted the names on the tags that Nicolas had ignored and the crew that had been accounted for after the incident until only a few names remained.

 _Robert Felawa, Abishek Pakti, Jane Shepard._

Aria replayed the messages the crew of her ship had sent, " _He opened the mako without hacking the door…"_

A small smile tugged at her lips as she brought up the crew of the Normandy during the mission against Saren. She was going through the information on each crew member when her omnitool rang. It was the turian she had sent as pilot.

"What's up?" she asked in a low voice, her bubbly mood oozing into her voice.

"Aria, I've lost control of the ship and it's on an intercept course towards the Cerberus ship, what is going on?" the turian sounded annoyed.

"What do you mean, you've lost control of the ship?" the asari asked as she shuffled to find a comfortable position on her couch.

"I mean I lost fucking control of the _fucking_ ship," Aria's smile turned quickly into a frown and made a mental note to kill the turian when he came back, "Are you doing this?"

"How am I going to be doing this from all the way in Afterlife, how stupid are you? Get the ship under control and come back. Where is the human I sent with you?"

"I sent Tareshk to go find him. He's been missing since we left the planet."

"Get that ship under control," Aria snapped before cutting the conversation short. After a moment, one of the datapads beside her began to glow blue and fizzled before imploding into a tight, smooth ball of metal and plastic.

…

Tareshk's mandibles were aching as they pressed against his face. He paced down the hall leading to the cargo bay, resting his hands on the walls of the corridor in case the ship made a sudden course change again. The door to the cargo bay whooshed open and he immediately saw the figure of the unknown man sitting against the emergency blast door.

"There you are! Listen, man, the ship's gone crazy and we're gonna crash against the Cerberus ship. The pilot's trying to get controls back but it ain't workin'. If you have any ideas, now would be the time to say them!"

The turian was met with nothing but silence and the sound of the handgun tapping on the man's helmet. Tareshk's mandibles clicked against his face as his heart raced against his carapace, "Did you hear what I said, human? We need to get this ship under control or we're fucked!"

Again, the human didn't budge or make a sound. The turian's patience was long gone and he stalked up to the sitting alien. He lunged forward to grab his arm when the handgun left the side of the human's face and was pressed against Tareshk's forehead before the trigger was squeezed.

…

It seemed like the rest of the crew didn't notice the dead turian, since no one appeared in the cargo hold again. Nicolas holstered his handgun after he was done wiping blood off his visor. Hal spoke over the translator, "I don't think that was necessary, Nicolas."

"He was either gonna die suffocating or in the crash. I gave him an easy way out. How long until we make contact?"

"Fifty seconds. I'll give you a ten second countdown for you to get a running start to the emergency hatch. You might as well back up to the entrance of the cargo hold."

Nicolas nodded and jogged to the entrance, jamming it using his omnitool to fry the lock, "so how's this gonna work?"

"So I'll start my countdown from 10 at 100km from the ship. Around two, I'll drop the speed to subsonic levels so we can penetrate the shield with minimal damage to the hull and I'll open the hatch. You'll be jettisoned out more-or-less one hundred metres away from the blast, and if you're lucky, you'll survive unscathed. Then you'll use your machinegun to manoeuvre yourself to the remains of the ships, and hopefully be able to fix it enough to get back to Omega. Alright, ready? 10, 9, 8, 7, 6…"

Nicolas started running for the hatch as Hal counted down. The hatch blew off its hinges and Nicolas was launched into the silence of space. He turned his head just in time to see the ships collide silently. A dim fireball emerged from his ship, as the other lurched into a slow spin, disabled. Debris flew past him reflecting the light of Alchera and the distant sun. Rolling himself into the fetal position, he closed his eyes and waited for the danger to pass before getting his assault rifle and looking around to see the ships were gone.

Hal's voice came to life on the translator, "The ships are drifting away at a quarter the speed of sound, Nicolas, and they won't hold orbit together. Get going in the direction of your right shoulder."

With a quick nod, Nicolas twisted to align himself so he could shoot between his feet to get going in the right direction and pulled the trigger.

* * *

 **Hope you enjoyed it!**


	8. Chapter 8

**Chapter 8! Enjoy!**

 **Everything in this fanfic is owned by Bioware. No copyright infringement intended.**

* * *

The Cerberus agent walked around the airless cabin of his destroyed ship. The on-board VI had notified him of the state it was in and how to fix it, so he knew where to go. The damage had been substantial, but if he could salvage materials from the frigate that had crashed into them, he'd be able to connect the hull and restore most of the systems necessary for sub-light travel to the nearest Relay and survive the jump. The hull thudded every so often from shrapnel impacting it, sending vibrations up his boots all the way to his helmet, but aside from that and the VI's guidance towards the other vessel, everything was dead silent.

" _How did that ship make it past our shields?"_ he thought to himself.

His mission was a relatively simple affair: search for any of the late Commander Shepard's personal belongings which could've remained on the Normandy. With his crew of ten, he'd have been done with the job in a matter of hours and have been back the Lazarus station by the end of the standard day. If only he hadn't made the mistake of ignoring the unknown frigate… In retrospect, he should have been more wary of the scavengers, but no one could've predicted they would commit suicide just to disable his ship. _Then again, hindsight is 20/20, as they always say._

He walked out into space and realized Alchera was closer than he thought. The Ice planet covered his whole field of view if he looked down towards it, going so far as to dim the stars close to the horizon. The white light reflecting off the planet shone on the wreckage in front of him, giving it the eerie black-and-white look of an old human vid where astronauts travelled within the sol-system to Jupiter. Now was not the time to reminisce anyway, so he got to cutting off plates of hull with his plasma-cutter.

The rumbling of the hull came through his boots once again. It felt like a larger piece of wreckage impacted the other side of the ship, but the VI didn't mention anything. "What just happened, Eames?"

The VI responded after a few seconds, "My surveillance systems are down, but the hull was not compromised by that impact."

The agent quickly dismissed the vibrations and continued cutting through the hull when something impacted his back and a beeping seeped through the back of his armour. A radio attempted to connect to his omnitool but before he could even turn around, the channel request bypassed his security measures and transmitted to his helmet.

"There's a remote detonation grenade on your back. Turn around slowly."

The agent did as the distorted voice said and turned to face a man in dark grey armour with a blackened visor. He let go of the plasma torch and let it float near his hand, hoping the man wasn't paying attention.

"Follow me. Leave the torch. Not like it's going anywhere."

The agent obeyed and followed the man, cursing the fact that he had acknowledged the torch. It was extremely strange to watch the man walk backwards on thee hull, as he managed to stay away from any damage done to the hull behind him. They reached the section of the ship right outside the cargo hold, away from any of the ship's systems when the man expanded a shotgun from the small of his back and let go of the detonator to the agent's grenade, letting it float between them.

"Alright, so I'm gonna ask questions, and you're gonna answer," the nervousness was the first thing the agent noticed in the man's voice. _This guy's an amateur,_ he thought to himself as he smiled behind the metal jaw protector on his helmet, not letting his eyes show his confidence.

The agent nodded and the man continued, "What were you going to do here in Alchera?"

"We were going to mine the water for tritium, uncharted territory means no tax," he lied in a practiced manner. He kept the urge to use sarcasm out of his sentence, but deliberately sounded annoyed.

The man shook his helmet before pointing his shotgun at the agent's chest. His voice sounded squeaky and uncertain even through the distortion, "You're lying, I know you are!"

"What's the point of the questions if you know the answers, dipshit? Focus on the important things: this vessel is going to fall into the atmosphere any second," he thought of a way to defuse the man, taking a gamble on his gullibility, "We have to get this ship back together or we're not getting out of here! Do you wanna die?"

The man's attitude suddenly changed and he stood up straight before muttering, "Alright, I'm bored."

In complete silence, the man's shotgun tightened and spat out a wide cone of projectiles, impacting on the agent's feet. The boots shattered and a second shot obliterated the flesh, making the agent begin to float, clutching at his stumps, screaming. The man walked up and covered the stumps in omnigel that stung at the wounds before slamming the agent on the hull and sticking the back of his head against it with more of the gel.

"Where's Shepard, you little piece of shit?" the distortion on the man's voice intensified as he screamed into his helmet's microphone.

The Cerberus agent's training kicked in as implants numbed the pain from his legs and he calmed his breathing before answering, "You're getting nothing from me, man."

The man nodded and stomped on the agent's stomach, making him lose his strength as the man stuck his limbs to his sides with omnigel epoxy , immobilizing him. Before the agent could catch his breath, the man remotely activated his omnitool and looked over the agent's oxygen levels before producing a small sliver of red-hot carbonite.

"You have enough air for a couple of hours, now I'd say you're having fifteen minutes," the man pressed the sliver to the agent's visor and the heat differential cracked it, letting air hiss out.

The internal pressure of the suit dropped immediately, and the agent started choking, gasping for air as the hissing filled his ears. Out of the corner of his eyes, he saw the man sit down beside him, resting his forearms on his knees.

"I can fix this ship by myself. So I'm staying here for the fifteen minutes it'll take you to die. On the other hand, you can talk so I can cover your visor up."

…

Over an hour had passed. The man had gone into the Cerberus ship to get oxygen tanks and refilled the agent's supply several times. The cybernetic implants in the agent made it possible to remain conscious in the absence of survivable air pressures, but it made the whole ordeal more desperate. Finally, he chose to talk, if only to die quickly afterwards.

"What… do… you… want… to… know?"

The man tilted his head to the side, surprised by the agent's change of heart. He inched closer and pressed a hand to the cracked visor, reducing the rate of air loss, "You wanna talk now?"

"Yes!" the agent gasped. The man produced a tube of omnigel from one of the pouches on his suit and spread the epoxy on the cracked visor. The hissing stopped soon and the agent's eyes stopped watering as he was able to breathe easier. After a long bout of coughing and gagging, the agent wept. The relief of getting a satisfying lungful of air was overwhelming.

"Alright, alright, are you done?" the man kicked the side of the agent's ribcage, "What were you going to do down there?"

"We were going to retrieve any personal belongings of the late Commander Shepard."

The Cerberus agent saw the man's fists tighten out of the corner of his visor. This wasn't just a scavenging run for him, it was personal. The agent smiled.

"Why?"

"My people in my organization valued the commander's work. Since the alliance wasn't willing to venture into the Terminus, we took it upon ourselves to preserve her memory, even if we only could get things she'd touched."

The man's voice cracked as he made the next question, "Where is the commander?"

The agent put as much sadness as he could into his voice to be more believable, "Our sources say her corpse was found by batarians and sold to the Collectors."

The man slammed a fist on the hull, the vibrations jarring the agent for a moment. The radio channel was cut off and for what seemed ages, the man kept the silence without even moving. Suddenly, the helmet radio crackled back to life, "Thanks for the info."

The man stood up and dissolved the epoxy binding one of the agent's arms. He then walked over to the detonator for the grenade on the agent's back and nudged it towards the free arm. It floated in space, moving only centimetres each second. "Use it when you like. I'll be on the other side of the ship. For what it's worth, I'll let you know when I'll start going for the Relay."

The radio channel was cut off and the agent waited for the remote to get within grabbing distance.

…

 _You tortured a man._

Nicolas spun on his heel as the now familiar voice came from over his shoulder. A bead of cold sweat ran down his nose and he brought his hand up to wipe it off, only for his gauntlet to clack against the visor, letting the drop float freely within the airspace for the helmet.

"I had to do it. I needed to know," he muttered.

"Who are you talking to, Nicolas?" Hal's voice came through the translator.

"Just shut up, Hal! I'm trying to make sense of things."

There came no response from the AI. Nicolas wondered for a moment if it could get hurt feelings and he felt a pang of guilt until the voice came back.

 _Well, now we just have to go back and keep doing what we were doing: wrecking shit up._

"No, I'm going back to the Citadel, away from all of this."

 _I'm sorry, since when did you become a pussy? Just when I started thinking you weren't a cowardly piece of shit. Well, guess we should've known better, huh?_

"You're not making any sense."

 _I'm making all the sense in the world. You're letting Jane's death drag you down. Look what you've accomplished during the time she's been gone!_

"But it was all for a reason!"

 _That's what you tell yourself, but you just couldn't help putting yourself in stupid amounts of danger. That wasn't for her, that was for you! You alcoholic, murdering adrenaline junkie!_

"Shut up!"

"BAKER!" Hal's voice snapped Nicolas out of his delirium. He was laying down on the hull with his hands on his helmet and the soles of his boots gluing him to the metallic surface. Hal continued, "I'd love to let you rant, but we're going to fall into Alchera's atmosphere in roughly ten hours unless you get to work. By my estimates, it'll take you seven to get the ship to conditions good enough to at least escape gravity, then you can go nuts with whatever you're dealing with but now is NOT the time!"

…

Three weeks had passed since her frigate left for the Amada system. Aria cracked her knuckles in annoyance thinking on the setback of losing that ship. It wasn't her biggest or her most expensive vessel, but if the crew was as dead as they surely were (she would've heard something by now), then she wasted time and resources for the false promise of whatever the Normandy contained. Maybe she'd send another shuttle to scout… no humans this time, their lack of ability to keep their heads on their shoulders endangered the efficiency of her operations.

A datapad beside her pinged. With a huff, she stretched her hand out and the pad glowed blue before floating into her grasp. A notification glowed displaying a message from an unknown address. The asari rolled her eyes, _probably the Shadow Broker._ At that point, with Jerris dead, there was no use for what she had requested, but she opened the message anyway.

 _As agreed, the medical files on the Normandy's crew have been attached, along with all of the audio logs recorded within the ship. The Broker sends his regards._

Opening the attached files, Aria couldn't help but smile at her misfortune, "First I lose a ship, then I pay for information that I don't need," she chuckled.

A knock on the door to her private quarters interrupted the silence. A holo-screen lit up with Anto, Aria's batarian assistant's face on it. The asari called out for him to come in and raised an eyebrow expectantly. The batarian wasted no time and got to the point immediately, "There's a man on dock 0934 that just arrived with a patched up Cerberus ship. He's got five kilos of C4 strapped to himself on a dead-man switch. Said that no one should approach him and he wants to talk to you."

The asari remembered the last message she got from the crew she sent to Alchera, " _Aria, I've lost control of the ship and it's on an intercept course towards the Cerberus ship, what is going on?"_

A smile tugged at her lips before waving Anto off, "Leave me. Send word for everyone to pull out of level 34 and get me a sky-car."

The batarian hurried out of the room and the door whooshed closed behind him as she opened up her omnitool. She dialled a contact that had gone for way too long without calling and waited for the other end of the line to answer.

"…Aria," came the familiar human voice.

"So you're alive. How did the mission go?" the asari tossed and turned on her bed, searching for a more comfortable position.

"Your crew lost control of the ship and crashed it into Cerberus. I was able to salvage it and get back, but it was too damaged to enter Alchera's atmosphere. We lost most of-"

"Alright, Nathan, leave it for when I see you. See you in a bit," Aria said as she got up from her bed and left her room. Anto stood at the end of the corridor, motioning for her to follow him out Afterlife's back door to where the sky-car was waiting.

"Your people are leaving… Did you tell everyone to back off or are you going to blow level 34?"

Aria stopped walking and tried to understand what the human was saying, "What? Oh no, I'm not making everyone leave to blow the docks! If no-one's there, you'll be unidentifiable! Just stay put, I'll be there in 5, darling."

She cut the connection as she boarded the sky-car and zoomed off for dock level 34.

...

Aria walked out of the vehicle into the abandoned dock. She motioned for Anto to wait in the car as she walked briskly down the corridor to gate 09, her heels clacking loudly on the concrete.

As she walked past gate 07, a distorted voice boomed from further down, "Stop right there! I'll tear Omega a new one!"

Aria smiled before yelling, "It's me, Aria! Come on out!"

The human inched out from behind gate 09. His helmet was on, and he had a block of explosives stuck to the top of his head as well as each of his limbs. Wiring connected the blocks, giving him a goofy look that made Aria let out a hearty cackle.

The C4 block wobbled as the human turned his head to the side perplexed, making Aria continue laughing, "I've never seen you laugh," came the distorted voice as Aria laughed harder, slapping her knees, "what _are_ you laughing at?"

"You!" she guffawed, "after three weeks, you show up with an explosive top hat? It's the funniest thing I've seen in a century!"

"Well, I'm glad you find it amusing," he waited for the asari to calm down before gesturing behind him, "I got you this. Hopefully it'll make up for what was lost."

"Never mind that," she chuckled, "let's go back to the club! Take that helmet and bomb off while you're at it!"

Nicolas did as instructed and walked towards the asari, who made a face and muttered, "or put the helmet back on until you shave."

...

Seeing Omega through the sky-car's windows was surreal, almost as if he wasn't there. He didn't really know what he was doing at the station since his purpose had been fulfilled to some extent. A feeling of emptiness took over Nicolas as Aria's talking over her omni faded into the back of his mind and the lights flashing by outside stopped making sense. Nicolas felt like he was floating in a rust-red river of yellow lights as one uncomplicated thought played on repeat in his brain: _Shepard is really gone._

The three walked into Afterlife. The asari and her batarian companion let the human go first as he absent-mindedly walked straight through the dancefloor, oblivious to the patrons, over to the stairs leading to the VIP level. The turian controlling the entrance sidestepped so Nicolas could pass and he came to a stop in front of Aria's couches overlooking the club. He stood there immobile, like a mannequin waiting for a stylist to put him in position. Aria nudged his shoulder and followed her glance towards her private quarters. Wordlessly, he went for the hall leading into the room and stood before the door, which Aria opened remotely. He stepped in and discarded his armour on the way to the bathroom. Inside, he found a razor and proceeded to shave before taking a much-needed shower. Scars and sores ached and stung as the hot water rinsed his skin.

Nicolas felt unfamiliarly soft as he emerged to the bedroom, where Aria sat with a bottle of rum in her hand and a set of casual clothes beside her.

"I took the liberty of throwing your amour away, it was practically a bioweapon at this point. I did order another one which should be arriving within the next hours, though."

"Thanks," Nicolas responded absent-mindedly as he put on the clothes Aria offered, "what happens now?"

"Well, my people are going through the ship," Aria answered while pouring Nicolas a glass of rum, which he took and nursed slowly, "Not much in it and you never fixed the hole in the belly of the cargo hold, but I'm guessing the diary you left will explain a lot. Did you not take your helmet off?"

He shook his head, "Nope. Had to go into cryo inside the suit. You wouldn't believe how uncomfortable it was to _wake up_ in it."

"Sounds horrible," she answered with a bored tone before turning to make eye contact, "Kind of funny that I missed you, thinking you were dead."

"That _is_ kind of funny. We haven't had many pleasant talks to warrant you missing me."

Aria scooted closer on the L shaped sofa they sat on, "Oh come on, Nathan, you know I have a public image to keep, but I've always had a soft spot for you."

"That's a dumb thing to tell your employee," Nicolas chuckled.

"Maybe… maybe this is going to be even dumber," Aria leaned closer to the human and gave him a peck, followed by a soft kiss before Nicolas could say anything, "When you asked me to give you the location of the Normandy I was really surprised. You talked to me like an equal when everyone else talks and looks at me like I'm some sort of demon. Then when you took out Omicron Company, I couldn't help but admire you. You didn't give a fuck that I am Aria T'loak and you had reason to not care, seeing how you pulled that job off. I was certain you would die trying and after you made it, I knew that I definitely didn't want you gone."

"Well, I'm here now," Nicolas didn't know what to say. His mind raced between Aria's black eyes and thoughts of Jane.

"Yes, after three weeks of thinking you were definitely dead. It gave me enough time to get curious as to why you really wanted to go there."

"The materials the Normandy was made out of-"

Aria squeezed Nicolas' hand, quieting him down, "No, Nathan, don't toy with me. I did some research. I know your real name and who you were after."

The hair on the back of Nicolas' neck stood on end, Aria's demeanour didn't show signs of hostility though.

"I think you have to let go of her memory… Nicolas. It's not good for you."

Aria's calm, sad stare made anger bubble in Nicolas' chest. The pity in her eyes irritated him to no end and he frowned before murmuring, "Don't act like you know a thing about me," he said as he stood up, downing the rest of the rum in his glass. The asari's eyes followed him as he walked to the door, which locked down as he approached.

Nicolas turned around after Hal's attempts to hack it, glaring at Aria. Her face was still sad, but pitiless this time. She stood up and alternated between looking at the floor and at Nicolas before speaking, "You aren't leaving until I tell you what's on my mind. I'm in my Matriarch years, I'm done with more years than I care to count, and after seeing hundreds of interesting souls live and wither away, you stop caring about people. The thing is, Nicolas, I know what you've been through, and I'm starting to feel something I haven't felt in a long time and I have to act on it. It's for your own good, then, that you have to hear this."

Nicolas looked at her as she activated her omnitool and brought up an audio file:

" _Commander, I can't stress enough how dangerous it is to take Mr. Baker out to the field."_ That was Dr. Chakwas. Nicolas gasped at hearing that voice in so long. _It's been months!_

" _But you also know that he has to be trained to defend himself from any threat by the time the mission's over."_ Shepard's voice made Nicolas' heart skip a beat, but he kept his face straight. He couldn't admit to himself the pain it caused him to hear her voice.

" _Commander,"_ Chakwas seemed to be pleading, _"There won't be any need to be that proficient after Saren has been dealt with."_

Shepard's tone became angry, _"Do you know how much manpower we lost on Virmire? I can't afford to lose another pair of hands, not just before we finish all of this. Nicolas is not sitting this ou-"_

The recording cut to static. Then another voice came in to replace Shepard's.

" _And what happens when the mission is over? Can he just go back to a normal life after all this?"_ That was Garrus' voice.

" _I'll try to keep him on the Normandy for as long as I can and start reducing the doses. That way, in a couple of months, I'll be able to stave off the withdrawal syndrome and he'll be ready to re-join civilian society. Hopefully."_ Dr. Chakwas spoke, relaxed.

" _And what if he doesn't lose the syndrome?"_

" _He'll become apathetic, have spurts of acute depression. His personality will show signs of sociopathy and he might experience audio-visual hallucinations."_ It surprised Nicolas how calm Chakwas was.

"…Doses?" Nicolas asked as he turned to face Aria, who was walking towards him, datapad in hand.

She shook her head sorrowfully as she handed it to him, "That recording was taken from the databanks of the Normandy. This was from Dr. Chakwas' personal records.

Nicolas' hands trembled as he opened the one document it contained and read silently, his lips mimicking what was written.

 _Patient remains alert and awake during conversations with peers. Orientation has remained intact during social activities within the Normandy, as well as recollection of past events, both during and before period aboard ship. Abstract thinking has remained good as well as insight capabilities. The ground team has shown supportiveness despite the occasional deteriorations in the patient's empathy._

 _A low degree of resistance to compound 28981-97-7 has been developed. Combined with the death of a squad mate in Virmire, apathetic behaviours are clearly visible. To counteract resistance symptoms, it is recommendable that dose be maintained._

 _Continue administration of 28981-97-7 for at least another two months, re-evaluate in two weeks to adjust dosage._

 _Dosage to be administered three times daily, once in each meal._

 _It is highly unadvisable for patient to be in the ground team once Normandy arrives at Ilos._

 _Signed, Dr. Karin Chakwas and Commander Jane Shepard._

Nicolas' legs felt like cooked pasta and he let himself fall against the door, sliding to the floor as he held the datapad up, reading and rereading it. Aria walked up to him and crouched beside the human.

"Shepard authorized the administration of antidepressants on you without your consent during the whole mission in an attempt to make a soldier. You were addicted to them. What Garrus was saying after the recording with Shepard was right after the mission on Virmire. You were administered antidepressants right until you left the Normandy, and then they were somehow administered further. I don't really know how."

Nicolas' mind wandered back to his apartment on the Citadel. Fuzzy images of his kitchen came up, a crate that automatically expended chocolates was there.

"This is why I say you have to let go of her memory, Nicolas. She wasn't the person you thought she was. She wasn't the person you _fell in love_ with."

Nicolas' eyes snapped up to meet Aria's. The asari stared back at him, her face set in a frown and her eyes glassy, "You're wasting your time flying around the Galaxy looking for someone who was never there for you. Let her go. You deserve to be with someone who cares."

She picked the datapad from his hands and stood up. She opened her omnitool and unlocked the door, "Now I've said what I needed to say. You are free to leave, but I would be really happy if you stayed the night. I can deal with anything that comes up tomorrow."

Wordlessly, Nicolas stood up and walked over to the bar, retrieving a bottle of rum before going to the sofa and sitting down. Aria sat down beside him and put a hand on the back of his neck before pulling him in for a kiss.

…

 _Nicolas opened his eyes. His eyelids ached from clenching them for too long. All around him was orange and red until details of the world that surrounded him came into focus. He found himself pinned under a heavy, bent door and he heard the crackling of fire nearby. Using his legs, he pushed the metallic door away and to the side and stood up. He was in a building, or what was left of it. Fire raged on the walls and ashes filled the air, swaying and floating all around him, making it hard to see further than five metres away. He looked around to find he was in a room, and the door on him corresponded to the one that would lead out into a corridor, possibly to a way out. As he walked for the doorway, he heard a voice he recognized call out to him._

" _Nicolas, I'm here," it was Shepard._

 _He jogged out into the hall to find it was empty except for the fire, which licked at the walls, scorching the ceiling._

 _The voice came again from far down the corridor, "Oops, maybe I'm here now?"_

 _The pain from being so close to the fire never came as Nicolas dashed down the corridor to find a flight of stairs leading down into more raging fire, "Maybe I'm down here?"_

 _He raced down and tripped on the steps, rolling down to a large room. Fire was now everywhere, blinding and scorching. Nicolas found that his legs were not responding anymore, and he looked down to see his feet melting. His hands came into view, and the skin melted away to muscle, which melted away to bone. A hand, undamaged, entered his field of vision to hold onto his bony one. He looked up to see Jane, smiling back at him._

" _Oh, honey, how are you going to get out of here?" she asked in a mocking tone._

 _Nicolas looked behind him to see that the stairs were now missing. Everything around him was either Shepard or blinding fire, then it was all only fire._

 _The voice of Jane echoed in his mind, "I got you into this mess because I hate you."_

…

"Nicolas! Nicolas!"

The human bolted upright on the circular bed. His eyes took some time to adjust as his ears picked up on the faint, muffled music of Afterlife. A hand touched his forehead, wiping off sweat, "You were having a bad dream. Have you been able to sleep well lately?"

It took a while before Nicolas shook his head and stuttered, "I've been having nightmares."

Aria pursed her lips as she sat beside him. Slowly, she pulled the sheets out from over her and walked to the table on the other side of the room, "I can make them go away," she said as she returned, a small bag in her hand.

"Nicolas, don't do what she says. I can't stay with you if you go down that path," Hal's voice came through the translator, but Nicolas didn't pay attention.

"This will numb your mind. It's just important that you don't overdo it, but I can help you out this first time. What do you say?" Aria asked, as she shook the bag onto the back of her hand, making a pile of red sand the size of Nicolas' little finger's nail.

"I swear I'm leaving if you do this Nicolas," Hal talked again to deaf ears.

"At least this time, someone's being honest with what I'm taking."

"Ok, don't think about the past. Stay with me here in the present. Breathe in, breathe out and then give this a sharp snort. You'll feel relaxed immediately."

…

* * *

 **Hope you enjoyed it!**

 **If you have any comments, feel free to PM me or leave a review!**


	9. Chapter 9

**Chapter 9! Enjoy!**

 **Everything in this fanfic is owned by Bioware. No copyright infringement intended.**

* * *

There was a faint crackle coming from the omnitool before a female voice speaking in synthesized English filled the small old room in the Omega living unit, "Good morning! You have one unread message from [IDENTITY WITHHELD], one message from KorvosVorcha and one missed call from Aria T'Loak. Reminder: your extranet subscription will renew within three standard Citadel days…"

A man groaned, deep within the bloodstained covers of his bed. A hand came out from under the sheets, its pointer and middle fingers had bruised nails on them and a healing scar circumvented the wrist. The joints seemed stiff as the fingers slowly curled around the omnitool, shutting the VI's announcements off. After a few moments of idleness, the rest of the scar-marred arm came out from under the covers, followed by a bruised shoulder and a neck with a couple of titanium studs jutting out from the lowest cervical disk. The long brown hair of Nicolas was sticking out in every direction as he came out from under the at least six layers of heavy fabric. Scars, old and new made his chest look like the surface of the moon, and his left arm was missing halfway through the bicep. The human toppled over on the bed when he tried to lean on the missing limb, so he cursed and helped himself back up using his right arm. The scar joining the hand to the arm stung, and he winced as he stood up naked. His legs hissed as he made his way to his armour crate.

Absentmindedly, he let the accessibility functions read out the message he received from the unknown contact:

 _Nicolas,_

 _We found you at the lower docks in a bad state. I had our local mechanic bring your legs back to 'functional' at least, and our doctor was able to reattach your hand but your left arm had to go. You'll understand I'm functioning on limited resources, so I didn't get you a prosthetic, but I sent Korvos a message telling him about your predicament. He seems to like you so he might even throw a discount in. I don't know what you were doing in the lower docks, records say the building that you lit on fire was empty but I do know one thing: Aria isn't doing you any good. Not for your mind, not for your body. The best thing you can do right now is get off-station. Go back to the Citadel and get a less dangerous job. Admit to yourself Omega beat you._

 _Sincerely, A worried friend._

 _PS. Consider the new set of armour a gift._

Nicolas shook his head as he used his teeth to hold a strap around the gauntlet he was covering his right hand in, remembering Garrus and thinking of the turian's failure to ever reveal the fact the crew of the Normandy had been drugging him.

 _He's an asshole just like everyone else._

It had been a long time since Nicolas even flinched at his auditory hallucinations, and this wasn't the exception. He'd gotten really good at ignoring it, but when it was being too much of a nuisance… well…

The human opened a drawer beside his bed and produced a small bag with red-orangey powder inside.

…

Korvos was busying himself with a small bone, routinely inspecting the object and gnawing at any miniscule piece of meat he'd missed the previous inspection. His omnitool pinged at the same time he saw the door to his shop open. A recognizable head topped with brown hair walked in drunkenly… that was definitely _the human_. He stood up and his eyes widened a fraction, seeing the state the alien was in. His left arm hung limply, and a shotgun was held loosely by his right hand. A big bruise appeared from under the human's hair, extending from his temples down to the beginning of his lower jaw and his lips had been broken at several places, making him look like a meaty skull.

"Did the human have an argument with a varren?" Korvos hissed.

A smirk parted the human's mouth but he winced as his lips bled and he remained silent. Of all the times he'd come in to the store, this time was the one he'd looked the worst. It would be bad for business if his best customer stopped coming, so he walked over and out of the counter to see how he could better help the human.

"How is it that Korvos can help his customer?" he insisted as he approached the drowsy looking human. A touch of blue glowed around him, and Korvos barred his teeth at the tell-tale sign of Red Sand use, "maybe a metabolising pill? Korvos has started selling them now."

The human closed his eyes as he spoke in a paused manner, as if trying to remember the words he was trying to use, "Actually… I need… a prosthetic- a prosthetic! For a left… human… arm."

The vorcha's eyes drifted to the limp left arm and gave it a smack. The armour bent backwards past the point the elbow should have allowed and Korvos let out a gurgling laugh, "And what else shall it be, human?"

"I need to use your… manufacturing table. My legs aren't what they used to be."

Korvos chewed on one of his knuckles. His teeth broke the skin and the knuckle bled, but his nervous system had evolved to allow for the gesture and he didn't feel the wound as he evaluated the human's condition, "If the human pays for the prosthetic, the materials and a hundred extra credits, Korvos can fix the legs while the arm is fetched, then install the arm."

The human had still not opened his eyes, swaying as the blue energy pulsed weakly around him. He tilted his head back to face the ceiling and cracked his eyes open, "Throw in a… a… metabolising pill and we have a deal."

The vorcha nodded and mentally calculated the final price as he tugged at the human's collar towards the back of the store. He held the human's hand over the payment receptor as his omnitool came to life and the credits were deposited. He took an extra fifty credits for his trouble… the human wouldn't notice.

…

Nicolas' head pounded as the Red Sand was purged from his system. His brain felt heavy in his head, as if when he turned to face somewhere else, the brain inside would take a few seconds to follow suit, bumping into the inside of his cranium. He saw the vorcha working on his numbed shoulder and remembered he was in the back of the weapon's and armour store.

"The met. pill seems to have worked. How is the human feeling?" Korvos asked as he attached a miniscule wire under Nicolas' lifted skin. The smell of cooked meat reached the human, making his nose wrinkle.

"I didn't know these operations bled so much," the human muttered as he looked at the bed he was laying on, the top of it a bright red with splashes of blue, which he could only assume was coolant fluid for the limb.

"They do not, human. Most of this is not the customer's blood."

"Oh…", Nicolas muttered as he suddenly became aware of the other several different colours of blood that caked the bed.

The vorcha eyed the human for a moment before resuming, "Korvos gave the human a large dose of antibiotics. Korvos would not recommend drinking or eating for a day, since humans should not receive such a dose."

In an attempt to distract himself, Nicolas looked down at his legs and tested the functionality. They no longer hissed when he moved the joints, and many of the pieces that weren't necessarily damaged were replaced with brand new ones. Korvos seemed to have done a good job… he'd check the bill later.

"It was hard to find an arm with five fingers in storage, but this one will fit inside a suit and will provide sensory feedback as well."

Nicolas turned his head towards the vorcha again, wincing at his headache, "what was it meant to be used for?"

"Mercenary enhancement. It interfaces with weapons to predict and counteract recoil. It would be convenient to begin using this hand more dominantly."

The smell of burnt bone filled the room, making Nicolas nauseous. Korvos slipped a platinum ring up his arm, attaching it to the human's shoulder, where the prosthetic began and the body ended.

"The rest of the arm had to be removed to allow for the whole prosthetic to be attached. Korvos did not know how to modify the arm so as to allow for the bicep to remain original. A good thing is that now the arm is bulletproof, or at least it will not let bullets pass."

"That sounds nice… You said I can't eat or drink?"

"That is what Korvos said. It is cheaper to administer antibiotics than clean the bed," the vorcha gurgled out a laugh, "If the human drinks, it risks fatal infection. Food will be unpleasantly vomited for the next twelve standard hours or so."

"When the hell did you become a doctor, Korvos?"

The vorcha shook its head perplexed, "There is an installation vid that comes with every prosthetic limb, human."

With a grunt, Nicolas began to get up, aided by the vorcha. He started to put his armour on again as his new arm started triggering the interface between itself and his body's nerves. The prosthetic twitched as he covered it in armour, up until the point where he put on his helmet, darkening the visor. With a quick command on his omnitool, the voice distorter was activated in his suit, one of the many programs Hal left installed when he disappeared.

Nicolas faced the vorcha and nodded before talking with a distorted voice, "Thanks for the help, Korvos."

…

The familiar booming of Afterlife's music welcomed Nicolas as he walked into the club. He made a beeline through the crowd and past the VIP floor guards. A turian stood beside Aria and walked briskly to meet the human, not understanding why everyone was letting him pass. Before he could fully raise a hand to stop the alien, though, his left mandible was grabbed onto and twisted backwards, making the turian follow powerless as the human stepped closer and closer to Aria.

The distorted voice carried effortlessly through the music, "You should pick your bodyguards better."

Aria smirked as Nicolas let go of the turian, "You only got to him because the rest knows to let you pass. He'll kick your ass someday," she stood up and motioned towards the back of the VIP floor with her head, "Shall we?"

The turian looked at the pair walk for Aria's private room until they were out of sight. He then turned to the other bodyguards, "Who the hell is that guy and why did you guys know to let him pass?"

Anto the batarian chuckled before bringing his omnitool to life, "He's some human that does business with Aria. Only Aria and I know who he is, but his omnitool has a program that notifies her when it's him. That notification is sent to us but you clearly aren't in the system yet."

"Spirits!"

…

"So you took your own sweet time with that drug bust…" Aria's coy tone was accentuated by the exaggerated way she swung her hips as she walked for the bar in her room, inspecting the variety of bottles at her disposal before turning to face Nicolas with an inquisitive expression, tilting her head towards the bar.

"I had a little trouble with the escape. The manpower was bigger than your intel," he said as he shook his head, denying the asari's offer of alcohol.

Aria huffed and rolled her eyes as she took a swig from some Serrice Ice Brandy. She walked towards Nicolas, a look of lust on her face, "I remember you used to be really good at working with limited information," she closed the distance between them and traced her finger along the bottom seal of his helmet. She detached it when she found the release button and got closer to the human. Their lips were practically touching as her eyes darted between his when she asked, "Is my own personal Blasto going soft?"

Nicolas was about to pull back when a blue hand held onto the back of his neck and Aria closed the remaining distance between them. He never knew how it was that he hated her when they were apart, but he couldn't put even a few centimetres between them when they were together. The asari pushed Nicolas towards the couch and they fell on it together. After a few minutes, Aria pulled back, straddling Nicolas, "Looks like Blasto has definitely _not_ gone soft."

"I'm wearing armour, Aria. You can't know."

"I know your kisses, Nicolas," she answered slyly, not missing a beat, "but I can tell that even if your body wants to, your mind isn't in it, and that's no fun. I have a small assignment for you, and maybe we can have a little nice time when you're done with that one, how about that?"

"Yeah, that sounds swell."

Getting off of the human, Aria walked over to her drawer and produced a small datapad, which she tossed over to Nicolas, assisted by her biotics. Plucking it out of the air, Nicolas attached it to his omnitool to download the contents. He put his helmet on and waited at the door for the asari to catch up. She groped him when she did, before opening the door wordlessly and walking off into the club.

The human suddenly got a feeling like he desperately needed a shower. A deep gravelly voice came from behind him.

 _She's fucking hot._

"She's using me."

 _Who gives a fuck? As long as she's giving you money and sand, you might as well give her something in return._

"Fuck you."

…

Nicolas shook his head to loosen a drop of sweat forming on his brow without having to remove his helmet. His hands started shaking as the last remnants of red sand were filtered out of his system, _looks like I'm not getting into any action today._

He breathed heavily as he attached an isotonic bottle to the entry port of his helmet, taking long sips from the cooled fluid. The HUD on his helmet directed him silently to the location Aria's assignment indicated and he ended up turning a corner to face a large building tessellated with small windows leading into tight living units. Looking around as he panted, he saw a small alleyway that might lead him to a good vantage point. Climbing to the top of the building he was walking around was noticeably harder than other times. His right wrist stung where the limb had been reattached, and the left arm felt awkward, a little stiff on the joints. The worst part about the climb to the top was the queasiness that flooded his stomach and the beads of cold sweat forming on his forehead. If only he had brought the little bag that was sitting atop his bedside drawer…

Panting, the human collapsed on the roof of the building. After what felt like minutes, but was surely hours, he sat up and approached the edge. Lying on his stomach, he expanded his sniper rifle and aimed for one of the small windows. A man walked was walking around the living unit, accompanied by a small... varren? The pet followed him around as he heated up something that looked like real human vegetables. Nicolas' eyes widened a fraction as he observed the man pull an actual raw chicken sealed in vacuum from the cooling unit. Nicolas looked away from the scope of his rifle and opened his omnitool to check that he was looking at the right target.

 _Jose Arnöt, human male. Jose has been monitoring the communications of our weapons convoys for the blue suns. The suns have been warned to back off, but the monitoring has continued, so he has to be eliminated. Find a way to make it look like an accident. Even if the suns suspect it was my doing, they will not be able to blame me._

 _His housing unit shouldn't be heavily protected as he works behind the scenes for the suns but be careful anyway, wouldn't want you to come back damaged, or more so._

Nicolas shook his head, "It says nothing about the varren."

Moving his head back to the scope he saw the man holding an old fashioned frying pan in his hand over a heating unit. Zooming in, he saw the glow of blue fire heating up the pan, it was gar operated. A piece of toast leaping into the air startled Nicolas until it was caught mid-air by Jose. There was a toaster in the man's kitchen as well.

A small smile tugged at Nicolas' lips as he tried to not let his shaking hands move the scope too far away from the living unit, "Bingo."

…

"The human wantsss nano-carbide sheets and Varren sleeping pills? Does Korvos look like a veterinarian?"

Nicolas pressed two fingers to the bridge of his nose. He needed to get the Varren to sleep, "How else would you knock a Varren out without leaving a trace?"

"Would it not be stupid to use sleeping pills? Easily traceable. Korvos would strangle it. Will the human still buy the nano-carbide?"

"Yeah just give me small sheets, like a datapad."

Nicolas left quickly, putting his helmet on as he entered the streets of Omega. The thought of having to strangle a Varren gave him goosebumps, but at least the one there was small. He just needed to do it without waking up the owner. _Do Varrens bark?_ He thought to himself as he wandered around the station's halls, waiting for the deep hours of the night cycle. As his patience ran low, his mind drifted back to the bag on his bedside drawer and a cold sweat started forming on his forehead and lower back. Maybe he could go and get a little before finishing his assignment.

 _Look at you. You're a nervous wreck._

"I've gotta admit I'm not doing so good."

 _If you get us a fix, you'll relax, maybe even do your job better._

"I don't think that's how it works."

 _Of course it does. When you're stressed, you can't focus, and you need to focus, right?_

"Ok, but only a little."

…

He swayed in front of the building. Having removed the scope from his rifle, he peered through it to look at angles he hadn't seen before. There were motion sensors in the corners of the apartment, but no cameras, making his entrance easier. He would still have to avoid tripping any anti-theft alarms but now it became a mission where Hal isn't essential. With a quick hack, he got into the building and made his way to Jose's apartment. Standing at the door, he activated his omnitool and started searching for cables with high data traffic in the walls. He followed the tangle he found to what was probably the VI hub of the apartment, so he produced a grenade from one of his pouches and configured it to the EMP setting. Giving it a twenty second fuse, he backed away to the other side of the third floor, putting as much concrete between himself and the grenade. A high pitched buzz came and went, and Nicolas checked that his omnitool was still operational before going to the door.

He removed the grenade shell and put it back in his pocket before approaching the door. With slow movements to reduce noise, he engaged the manual override and entered the apartment. Nicolas stepped onto the floor mat and waited for the sound of the varren stirring, but in five minutes of pregnant silence, it didn't come. As he got ready to walk into the apartment proper, his sight was drawn to two white-ish dots glowing in the dark at knee height.

Nicolas smirked and whispered, "So you don't bark after all."

At this, the varren moved, inching closer and closer to the intruder before leaping throught the remaining three meters, silently and straight for the human's throat. Lifting his left arm, the Varen's teeth met with a solid arm, but the teeth dug into the armour regardless. Electronics protested but were muffled by the ceramic plates as Nicolas fought the varren's thrashing motions, trying to find a good position to strangle the animal. Its force pushed the two into the wall and to the floor, where Nicolas was finally able to subdue it. The human's eyes focused on the lifeless motion detector on the corner of the room as the Varren gradually stopped struggling. Without moving his eyes away from the motion detector, Nicolas gave a hard twist and stood up slowly, wondering why he wasn't feeling guilt or disgust at himself.

Slowly, he walked deeper into the apartment where he was jumped by his target. Nicolas' eyes caught sight of a gun in the human's hands. _If he shoots, it definitely will_ _ **not**_ _look like an accident._ The two struggled around the corridor, trying to align the barrel into each other, crashing into various decorations hung on the walls and strewn around the floor. After a well-aimed punch to the throat, Nicolas gasped for air as he started losing in the battle of strength against Jose.

The barrel was starting to align with his head when he spared a moment to release his left hand from the grip of the pistol, moving it for the small of his back where the emergency medical controls were. He released a dose of adrenaline into his bloodstream and a serum with a high concentration of oxygen when the barrel of the gun finished aligning on his head. He jerked his head back right as the trigger was pulled and the round entered the top of the helmet. The bang resounded within the suit, dazing Nicolas, who went limp immediately. Jose let go and looked at his pistol, panting and shocked.

Nicolas blinked the shock away as the adrenaline made his head throb. He was on the floor, his legs going under Jose's as the man stood there, contemplating what to do with the supposedly dead body. With a quick and practiced motion, Nicolas swept Jose's feet out from under him. The target's startled yelp was interrupted by a hand zooming up to cover his mouth as an armoured arm coiled around his neck and grabbed his pistol arm, twisting it so the weapon clattered to the floor. Jose was pinned to the floor with Nicolas on top as he tightened his lock around the Blue Suns' merc. The sounds of gagging and gasps for air filled the apartment. A blood vessel popped in Jose's eye, tinting it red as foam formed in his mouth and dripped onto Nicolas' arm, who looked up at the ceiling through his cracked visor, waiting for the last spasms that would signal his target was out cold.

Panting, he got up and walked to the heating unit, tracing the gas pipe to where it reached the main tanks. He unscrewed the hose that fed the gas to the house until he heard a faint hissing and walked over to the toaster, bringing the nano-carbide sheets out of his pockets. Placing the sheets in the toaster, he waited for the apartment to fill up with gas as he felt the entry wound on his helmet. The HUD had glitched out from the bullet wreaking havoc within the electronics of the helmet, the visor was cracked and something warm was trickling down the back of his neck, probably from some jagged piece of ceramic that had been broken out of its place. Shaking his head at the situation, he could hear the bullet rattling around behind his head.

After getting a faint smell of natural gas, Nicolas activated the toaster and walked out of the apartment. He slid the door closed behind him and opened the manual override panel. With a red-hot monofilament from his omnitool, he welded a small piece of metal into the frame, jamming the door release. He walked out of the building and into the street when the gas caught fire and the windows of the living unit pulverised and flew off in a cloud of glass.

* * *

 **Hope you enjoyed it!**

 **If you have any comments, feel free to PM me or leave a review!**


	10. Chapter 10

**Chapter 10! Enjoy!**

 **Everything in this fanfic is owned by Bioware. No copyright infringement intended.**

* * *

Nicolas made his way back towards Afterlife on foot. For once he had left a mission unscathed and he wanted to relax. The damage to his suit seemed to be enough to deter any attempts to mug him as he turned corners into dark hallways. The bustle of the space station led his thoughts to the mission Aria had given him the last week, the one where he lost his arm and his old acquaintance had supposedly rescued him.

 _He probably took the credit for someone else, that dirtbag._

Nicolas didn't answer out loud, not that it mattered, but his thoughts started to articulate a sentence in his mind, "It is by far the easiest story to believe. I'm pretty sure I passed out shortly before he arrived, since he was able to reattach my hand. I wonder how it really went down."

…

 **One week ago.**

The warehouse was empty save the pieces of furniture stuffed with bags of red sand, a weird precaution to take in Omega, since it didn't have a customs office or anything of the sort. Nicolas had just finished putting explosive charges on each of the stashes when he noticed that one of the sofas had a strange marking. Upon closer inspection, the Blue Suns logo was unmistakeable. A bead of sweat trickled down his temple, this wasn't some small fry smuggling drugs into Omega, this was a Blue Suns operation.

Nicolas' eye twitched as the gravelly and deep voice in his mind cursed Aria and prophesized Nicolas' death. Like a scared bug, Nicolas ran to each of the pieces of furniture, making sure that the explosives were all in place before scrambling for a panel at the end of the warehouse, where the far wall could open out to space for cargo ships to dock. His mission was to purge and destroy the drugs by spacing them and then blowing them up, it seemed like an in-and-out mission, but everything went downhill from that moment.

The entrance to the warehouse was blown open with a breach charge and two flashbangs rolled in. Nicolas dove behind a sofa wrapped in plastic sheets as the grenades detonated, deafening him for what seemed like minutes. The human extended his assault rifle and peaked out to fire at his assailants, but the sheer amount of enemies to take down made Nicolas' trigger finger hesitate. He sat back down behind the sofa thinking of what to do next.

" _Thirty fucking mercs,"_ he thought to himself as his hands started shaking, his gloves rattling against the rifle.

An idea dawned on the human, and he opened his omnitool as bullets started piercing the sofa he was sitting behind, depleting the energy of his shield. With a press of a button, one of the pieces of furniture blew up. The red sand inside spread through the air, generating static and warping fields as the powder caught fire. The bullets stopped coming for a second and Nicolas used that time to change position to the back of another sofa. He blew another piece of furniture when the shots started whittling away at his new cover, the red sand having the same effect.

Nicolas heard the shout of a Batarian from the far side of the room as the assault rifle fire died down, "You'll never get out of here alive, Archangel!"

The human shook his head as he selected another bomb to detonate, "I'm not goddamn Archangel," he whispered as he blew a third explosive. He sat up to a crouch and set his eyes on the panel that would open the far wall. Accommodating his legs on the floor to start sprinting, the telltale tinkling of a grenade disc rolling on the ground came from beside him. His eyes darted to see the disc on his right as he started sprinting. The frag grenade blew behind him as his shields failed from the shockwave. Shrapnel shattered plates on his back and shoulders, but one piece flew between them at his right wrist, slicing the hand clean off. Nicolas landed under the panel, his hand beside him. High on adrenaline, he picked up his hand and activated the panel before dashing behind a structural pillar and holding on.

The vacuum pulled the rest of the furniture out into space, along with the mercs that remained alive. His vision blurred, Nicolas reached around the structural pillar and closed the wall. He fell to the ground as blood gushed from his wrist and dripped from shrapnel wounds on his back he hadn't noticed. He opened his omnitool and drowsily walked towards the exit of the warehouse, blowing each of the bombs he had planted. The only thing Nicolas heard as he blew the last piece of furniture was the first half of a bang. One of the stashes had managed to remain in the warehouse and blew dangerously close to the human. A piece of metal structure hit his left arm, ripping it off as the rest of him flew towards the entrance wall. The red sand from that last explosion finally succeeded in lighting the roof on fire.

"Spirits! Cassis, get in here now!"

A turian ran into the building, waiting to find traces of a firefight only to be met by a fire and a half-dead human. Another human entered the warehouse carrying a case full of medigel pouches and bags of blood of various colours. The turian looked at the human doctor covering the wounds in medigel and dropping the severed hand into a bag full of medigel which flash froze once closed.

The turian brought a hand up to his helmet as the suit speakers were muted.

"That's Nicolas, no doubt about it. Tell the doctor he's type A blood," a synthetic voice crackled through the turian's translator.

The turian nodded and relayed the information to the doctor, who hesitated before nodding, perplexed at the turian's knowledge. Two litres of blood were plugged into the human's suit, activating its emergency life support systems. A needle extended into the small of the human's back, into the abdominal aorta to pump the extra blood into the body.

The turian spared a moment to look around the burning warehouse when his eyes stopped at what seemed to be an arm. The pieces of bicep that remained were shredded all the way to the forearm. It was probably Nicolas', but there was no way it could be reattached. Shaking his head, he asked the doctor if it was okay to move the human. With a nod, they took Nicolas into a sky-car where a Batarian and a Salarian sat waiting. The vehicle zoomed off into Omega, leaving the burning warehouse and the lower docks behind.

…

 _Isn't it fucking convenient that the turian appeared in the nick of time?_

"Whatever, I'm alive now," Nicolas protested against himself as he turned a corner to make a shortcut for Afterlife. He stopped at a dark alley to open his visor but the mechanism had been ruined. With a grunt, he removed the helmet and produced a cigarette from a pouch on his thigh. Lighting it, he puffed out a cloud of smoke when he heard a familiar name get called out.

"…of Archangel," it was a gravelly voice, characteristic of a turian, and it wasn't far away. Nicolas looked around and caught an open window from the corner of his eye. The voice was coming from there.

He inched closer as a batarian voice piped up from the window, "How do I know you're telling the truth?"

Nicolas frowned as he stood non-chalantly on the other side of a dumpster, puffing out his smoke in silence. The turian voice came again, "Look man, I just want out. You said I could go if I gave you something you could use, and I did that. Here are the address and pictures of the place with Archangel and the rest of the squad in it. Go check if they're fake, go ahead! I'm confident this info is legitimate. Now I want my ticket out of this shithole."

"Oh you ain't going anywhere, Siddy. I'm taking you to Aria now and she'll decide where you'll go."

At the mentioning of Aria, Nicolas dropped the rest of his cigarette and fast-walked for the nearest rapid-transit terminal. He sent a text to the asari notifying her that his job was done and that he would be going in civilian clothing to the club for a night of drinking.

…

Nicolas sat at one of the bars of Omega, the Salarian bartender Urvat eyed the human suspiciously when he asked for a beer and he took a cautious sip. The CCTV displays behind the bar alternated between different angles and Nicolas' eyes were glued to the screens. Finally, he saw a sky-car descend near the exit and a Batarian and a Turian hopped off. Nicolas squinted at the screen as he saw the two enter the tunnel leading into the club before leaving his seat and heading for the exit where he would be able to get a good look at the two. Anywhere else it might have been more of a gamble to assume that the two were the same ones he overheard, but in Omega it was completely unheard of to see a Batarian-turian duo walking into a club together. As Nicolas approached the entrance, the large gates swooshed open to admit Aria's Anto and 'Siddy'.

The turian was pail and jittery. Blue markings decorated his mandibles but aside from that, his face was bare. Anto looked the same as always, walking a few steps behind the turian, leading him towards the stairs that went up to the VIP floor. Nicolas' eyes followed the pair until they reached Aria. He could clearly make out the tendrils poking out over the back of her head and her arms spread out in that grand manner she always does when meeting someone new. After a few seconds, Nicolas saw Aria get up and disappear into the VIP level. Whatever was happening now, it meant something bad for Garrus.

 _You're not thinking about helping that two-faced bastard, are you?_

"So what if I am?" whispered Nicolas as he downed his nearly full beer before walking out of the club and heading for his living unit to suit up. He needed to talk with Aria.

…

The Gates of Afterlife opened for Nicolas once more as he walked in. His HUD was still not functional and the hole in his helmet even made the krogan bouncer at the entrance widen his eyes. Everyone on the way to Aria sidestepped to let the human pass and all of her bodyguards became silent as he approached.

He had set his suit speakers to be louder this time, and in a distorted voice, he spoke, "I did what you asked. Can we talk?"

Aria arched an eyebrow as a curious smile tugged at one corner of her mouth. She downed the drink she had in her hand and wiped off a droplet that remained on her lip with the back of her hand, "Let's go."

The asari's room looked different this time. There was no bag of Red Sand on the table in front of the sofa, but instead there were several empty bottles of turian liquor. Nicolas looked around before speaking through the suit's speakers, "Had visitors?"

"Don't act like I didn't see you looking when you came to 'drink', Nicolas," Aria chuckled as she stepped over to him and removed his helmet. She pressed a finger against the bruise on the side of his head, making him wince, "Never before have you had only one beer at the bar."

"Who was he?" he demanded with deliberate calmness.

Aria's eyes widened, "Oooooh, jealous, are we?" she smiled before baring her teeth at the human, letting her nose wrinkle, "How about this, persuade me, and I'll tell you all about it, deal?"

Nicolas' eyes went blank as he looked at the floor for a moment. Walking calmly over to the bar, he opened a bottle of whiskey and took a long swig from it. He frowned and exhaled a long breath before turning his head to glare at Aria, who started backing away slowly towards the bed.

"Deal," he muttered as he stalked over to the asari.

 _Oh now you really have to be worth the information, dipshit._

Nicolas closed his eyes and cracked his neck, tilting it to the sides as he neared Aria. She let herself fall on the bed as he finished closing the distance. Before she could lie down, Baker stretched a hand out and grabbed her by the neck, careful not to squeeze. Aria gave a playful snarl as they met for a long kiss, their breathing hitching as they fell on the bed. Without interrupting the kiss, Aria reached around his ribcage and started unclasping his armour. Nicolas chuckled as she tugged on a clasp and was unable to open it. Aria pulled away and gave him a perplexed look.

"Is the clasp too hard for you?"

With an annoyed grumble, Aria lunged forward, biting Nicolas' lower lip and drawing a drop of blood. She started glowing as Baker's clasps all became undone at once. He didn't miss a beat as he stretched his limbs out one by one and his armour flew off. Aria let go of his lip so he could descend to her neck, kissing, licking and biting, earning pleasured moans from the matriarch. A faint humming filled the room as the last of Nicolas' armour plates came off, and he was left with nothing but his underarmour on top of Aria.

Aided by his prosthetic arm's strength, Nicolas turned her over onto her belly deftly, getting a startled yelp which turned into a playful giggle as he started undoing her suit while she arched her back, raising her butt, "Your fingers are cold!"

Nicolas didn't answer as he pulled the garment off in a swift motion. With his flesh hand, he gave the prone asari a hard smack on the ass, earning a startled moan. With urgency, he removed his underarmour before turning Aria back over. She looked him up and down, stopping at each individual scar on his chest before stopping to stare into his eyes. With a coy smile, she slowly opened her legs, inviting him closer.

Grabbing onto the underside of her thighs, he pushed her back on the bed, leading her to the centre before crawling on top of her. The two embraced before moving back and forth. A hand crept down Nicolas' stomach, reaching him and grabbing on. He let out a gasp as Aria squeezed and smiled, "So Blasto _hasn't_ gone soft."

"Stop calling him that," Nicolas smirked as he couldn't help but growl at Aria's touch.

"Or you'll what?"

"You don't want to know."

"Oooooh now I'm scared, _Blasto._ "

Nicolas chuckled before lunging for her neck and biting hard. Aria smiled with pleasure as she let go of him and raised her hands to drag them across his back, breaking the skin. He hissed at the pain and pulled away to be able to stare into Aria's eyes as he aligned himself on her before pushing his hips forward. Aria's breath hitched as the two moved to the rhythm of Afterlife's muffled music. Aria bit into his shoulder as his pace quickened, drawing blood from the human. The two rolled over so Aria could straddle the human. She grabbed onto his hands and pinned them to his sides as she controlled the rhythm, swaying her hips in circles as she moved.

Aria's pace became more and more frenetic and Nicolas could feel his mind going blank as the pleasure took over, but as he closed his eyes, Aria grabbed onto his face, squeezing his cheeks to get his attention.

"No," she gasped, as her eyes became black as the midnight sky.

Nicolas' world became nothing but blackness as the bed under him, the sounds around him and Aria's warmth disappeared. Her voice whispered into existence, starting far away and unintelligible but drawing closer from the void until it surrounded him and he could finally make sense of what she said, "Embrace Eternity."

Nicolas' universe became blue. He couldn't make out any details, no matter where he looked until he felt a hand trailing down his chest. He looked down to see Aria's arm going down towards his legs, its shoulder losing itself in the blue background. He felt lips kissing his neck as the arm vanished, then legs straddling him and finally, Aria materialized on top of him, swaying her hips as she had been doing back in her private room in Afterlife.

Baker could feel he was ready to finish, but words couldn't escape his mouth as he reached the point of climax. Aria's moans were all he could hear as all became blackness and reality came bubbling back.

Aria was laying on top of him, beads of sweat forming on her blue skin. She rolled over and looked down at her belly before letting out a quick chuckle and stretching out a hand to drag her fingers softly over Nicolas' chest.

The human panted as he stared up at the ceiling. It took him some minutes to fully come back from the melding but once his eyes came back into focus, he turned to give Aria a warm look, "So I shouldn't be worried about the turian?"

Aria laughed once before winking at Nicolas, "Sidonis is nothing compared to you, darling. He's a coward who sold out his friends. I let him out of Omega only because what he gave me was too valuable to pass up."

Nicolas raised his eyebrows in fake surprise, "what did he give you?"

"Everything about Archangel's team!" She couldn't help but smile, "His hideout location, their weaponry, dossiers on all his team mates… the only thing missing was Archangel's identity, but that doesn't matter."

"Why not?"

"Because I called the Suns, Eclipse and the Blood Pack after Sidonis left, and they payed me a _stupid_ amount of money for the info."

"Are you going to be my sugar-mommy now?" Nicolas smiled and Aria gave him a playful push.

"No, you are still going to earn your prizes. Speaking of which, I have a quick job for you, if you want?"

"Shoot." Nicolas turned over to his side to face Aria and she did the same.

"The Blood Pack are starting to bring Red Sand into Omega, but that will mean the market will be shared by too many providers. There is a batarian called Waeram overlooking the delivery of the cargo, and I need you to kill him and destroy whatever he brought onto the station. Once he's dead, I need you to display his corpse outside the building with a Blue Suns logo seared onto his face or somewhere visible, so we can start bad blood between the mercs."

"Sounds easy enough."

"I do need you to get this done before the raid on Archangel starts, otherwise no one will believe the Suns did it."

"Fair enough. I'll get ready." Nicolas sighed as he got up from the bed and started putting his armour on.

…

Baker walked out of Afterlife briskly, heading for the rapid transit. As he went, he brought up his omnitool, Nicolas sent a message to Garrus' contact address from C-sec. There was no other way he would be able to reach him.

…

"You just received a message on your old C-sec account, Garrus."

The turian stirred from his nap when the synthetic voice called his name. He grumbled something unintelligible and cleared his throat before continuing, "Wha- what, what is it, Hal?"

"You just got a message on your old C-sec account."

Garrus shuffled around on the hard mattress, trying to find a more comfortable position, "Give it a look. Tell me if it's important."

A moment passed before Hal's voice crackled in his translator again, "It's from Nicolas. He wants to meet up ASAP."

Garrus' eyes shot open, "Tell him I'll be waiting for him at Air Filtrations Sector C."

…

Nicolas leaned against the railing that would avoid him falling ten levels down to the roof of Afterlife. Sparks rained down from the upper levels where spaceships were being maintained, and the roar of everyday life bubbled up from the lower levels of the station.

He lit a cigarette with his omnitool as a turian rounded a corner and walked towards him deliberately. Blue armour and a helmet with a black visor let Baker know it was Garrus approaching… or Archangel as the population of Omega had started calling him. Nicolas eyed him warily, looking for weapons, but none were visible from his point of view. There was, however, ample space on his back for a heavy pistol or a shotgun. His own hand crept towards the pistol on his thigh, but he stopped himself, hoping Garrus hadn't noticed.

"Thinking about shooting me, broomhead?" the turian's flanging was further distorted by the suit's speakers, but it was undeniably Garrus' voice.

"As long as Aria hasn't asked for it, I wouldn't consider it. I'm just not sure about _your_ agenda."

Garrus shook his head, crossing his arms, "After all we've been through, I'm the smallest of your problems. You have to get away from that woman, Nicolas. When she's done using you, it'll only be a matter of time before you're thrown out the nearest airlock."

"At least I _have_ time, Archangel," Nicolas stood and took one step towards the turian, "You have a defector in your midst, giving out information on your hideout and your pals. Looks like they aren't the most trustworthy people."

"What does that mean?" Garrus closed the remaining distance between the two, towering over Nicolas. His tone went low and menacing.

The human didn't back away, and he blew his smoke into the turian's face before speaking, "It _means_ that names and information are starting to circulate in Omega."

Garrus shook his head, his demeanour becoming less menacing, "Impossible. None of the people in the squad know each other by name. Hell, I only know some of them myself, and I brought them together."

"Does the name Sidonis ring a bell?" Nicolas tossed his cigarette over the railing.

Behind the visor, Garrus' eyes widened, and his mandibles pressed against the walls of his helmet, "No."

"He's a turian that's just fed info on your squad to Aria's people, which she sold to the Suns, Eclipse and the Blood Pack. The thing is, if he asked for a ticket out of Omega for that information, then the consequences that it'll bring must come soon."

Garrus was unable to hold back a 'spirits'. Nicolas lit another cigarette before continuing, "I'm probably putting myself in front of many gun barrels by telling you this, so I would recommend you start preparing for an attack. You know, so I don't get thrown out an airlock in vain."

"I guess a thank you is in order," muttered Garrus as he turned to leave.

Nicolas sighed, "This is what being a good guy in Omega got you."

"It's better than having spent a year working for the queen of crime."

"We both did the same things, Archangel. We did drug busts, killed weapons smugglers, loan sharks, mercs. All those good deeds, and in the end we both had the same effect: none."

"I brought hope to the victims. You just made them switch their fear from one crime lord to another."

"And what good is hope if it'll all be just as it was in a couple months' time? At least I won't get killed in the process, and Omega has no memory for martyrs anyway."

Garrus let his arms fall and clack against his armour. He shook his head in disbelief, "This isn't the Nicolas that saved the Galaxy by my side… or Shepard's."

It had become easy to not flinch at her name. Nicolas scoffed, "Shepard's dead, Archangel. She saved the Galaxy and then she got killed. A textbook martyr if ever there was one. It only took a month before everyone forgot her and what she fought against. The Reapers are somewhere out there and no one is about to do a thing about it. Why try and save anything when no one really wants to be saved?" He pointed at him with his cigarette, "Go. Take care of your squad, get them out of Omega ASAP and don't come back. This isn't a place for heroes."

Garrus huffed beneath his helmet, "Take care of yourself, Broomhead."

Nicolas threw his second cigarette over the railing, "You too."

Once Garrus had rounded a corner, Nicolas crouched against the railing, checking his weapons before opening his omnitool to go over Aria's mission details once more.

A level above, a Batarian opened his omnitool, set to the dimmest hologram strength. After typing a quick message, he left for a rapid-transit station to get back to Afterlife.

…

Baker had spent the last fifteen minutes talking to a mechanic about changing the registration to a fictional ship he supposedly had while he eyed the target building. It was a run-down warehouse where the red sand shipment would arrive. By the time Nicolas had gotten there, a skycar towing a container had arrived, and it had just left. Promising the mechanic to come back the next day, he walked past the building and looked for a back entrance.

The lights behind the warehouse had been shot off long ago. He made his way to a grate that led to a garbage disposal chute originating in the building's basement. He climbed in, careful to not let the grime inside the chute make him slip.

Expanding his rifle, Nicolas scanned the higher levels, looking for heat signatures. He found and highlighted three figures on the ground floor and one in the second level. Nicolas remembered the details on Aria's assignment. He had to do the job quick. Once the occupants of the warehouse became aware of his presence, Blood Pack mercs would be called in and arrive the following fifteen minutes.

Going up a flight of stairs, Nicolas edged up to a pillar overlooking the centre of the warehouse. The container that had been flown in was in the middle of the ground floor, and three Blood Pack members were unloading the cargo of Red Sand. At the far end, a container had been fashioned into an office, placed on the second level, with a flight of stairs leading into the makeshift office. Through the container's window was a Batarian in red armour. Peeking around the pillar, Nicolas spotted the Blood Pack tattoo on his neck. _That's the target. That's Waeram, alright._

He evaluated the best approach. With Waeram overlooking the ground floor, it would be nearly impossible to sneak up to the other three. He could either wait until they were done, risking the arrival of more Blood Pack to help with the shipment, or go in, guns blazing, risking reinforcements arriving.

 _The assignment said fifteen minutes._

Crouching against the pillar, he took two grenades from his pocket. Setting one to flashbang and the other to high explosive, he hurled the stun grenade over to the three mercs unloading the container. Once it blew, he threw the second grenade, disintegrating two of the Blood Packs and disabling the third's shields. He made quick work of the third as he thought, alarmed, "Waeram's gotta be calling for reinforcements!"

The remaining batarian shot through the office's window at Nicolas as he sprinted for the flight of stairs. The bullets bounced off his shield, lowering it to minimum capacity as he ran up to the locked door Waeram hid behind. Hacking it open, Nicolas saw a desk, with the batarian cowering behind it.

"Come on, Waeram, don't make me chase you around the desk. We both know you're screwed."

"Shut your mouth, human! It's in your best interest not to kill me!"

"That's a new one! Sorry, man, but I'm not gonna wait for the Blood Pack to come here and help you out of this mess." Nicolas raised his rifle and looked through the scope, finding Waeram's head's heat signature behind the desk.

It all happened too quickly. The moment the bullet had shred through the desk and Waeram's head, a dead-man switch activated. The desk between the two beeped loudly and Nicolas had just enough time to back off and let the door close in front of him. Inside the desk, three breach charges detonated in the direction of Nicolas, blowing the door from its rail and crushing him against the wall. The building's integrity was compromised, and the warehouse's roof fell onto the container, exposing the red sand. A second breach charge, hidden within the container blew, igniting the red sand, and setting the warehouse ablaze. The door holding Nicolas in place fell forward, crashing through the second floor to the ground level, Nicolas following close behind.

…

"Warning, toxic levels of carbon monoxide detected. Warning, visor shutting mechanism obstructed." The suit's VI repeated the warning a couple of times until Nicolas stirred.

The building was crumbling all around him, fire raging and eating at the walls, licking up at the ceiling that began to blacken, bend and crack downwards. His arms began responding and his consciousness came simmering back as he pushed himself up from an uneven and jaggedly splitting floor. A searing pain shot through his jaw and cheek, and the hand raised to his face met a piece of floor tile hanging on his skin. He tried to clench his teeth to stave off the pain, but they met with the piece of shrapnel blocking the way, so after a sharp shout, he gathered his willpower to grab at the piece of concrete and pulled. Quickly extracting a medigel patch from a pouch on his thigh, he removed the protective film and slapped it on the wound, effectively stopping the bleeding and soothing the throbbing pain. Nothing could get the taste of iron out of his mouth, however. His helmet visor was cracked and the HUD shut off long before he woke. He tried to shut the visor completely, but the crack hissed as air seeped through it. It would be soon before the suit air supplies were gone due to the leak, so he stood and tried to make sense of where he was inside the warehouse. On the floor above was where the desk had been, and most of the floor he was standing on belonged to the corridor outside it. He needed to find the batarian, or what was left of him and leave the corpse at the entrance, otherwise it could all be associated to an accident, and that would really piss of a certain asari. His left leg was twisted at the ankle, surely catching most of the door's impact, as well as the fall. Climbing up to the second floor wasn't an option, but the stairs should be nearby around the corner to Nicolas' left, so he walked along the wall to his objective, watching the precarious state of the ceiling above him. The stairs were unobstructed, but the railing managed to sear his hand through the deteriorated mesh of his glove. Taking the steps two by two, Nicolas spotted the upper half of the batarian's body beside the doorway where the bomb went off, at least he would be easier to carry out of the building. Once they were out, he retrieved the blue suns brand and turned it on, searing the logo on Waeram's forehead, as instructed before making his way to Afterlife.

The piston above his Achilles juncture hissed one last time before the foot hung freely from its hinge as Nicolas turned the corner reaching the bridge towards Afterlife's entrance. He hesitated when he saw the Krogan bouncer standing at the end of the queue, but he had to debrief with Aria. Afterlife was his safe haven in case the Blood Pack was following him. As he limped up to the krogan, an alarmed expression flashed across the old co-worker's face before going back to normal.

"Tough day?" the krogan bouncer nodded as Baker walked past the long queue into the club.

"You have no idea, man. I hope Aria's waiting for me," the speakers distorted his voice and crackled, struggling through the damage.

"Nobody's said anything about her leaving, but I doubt her patience is too long, you should hurry in." the krogan talked over his shoulder as Nicolas walked into the entrance tunnel.

Before he could make it halfway across, a taser shot ten thousand volts through his spine, making him crumble to the ground. A black bag was immediately pulled over his face, and he was dragged into the club by his shoulders, his feet lagging behind. The music seemed awkwardly distant, distorted by the aftereffects of the taser, but the sound of stairs banging periodically against his shins was unmistakeable; he was being carried to Aria.

With the bag still on his head, he was punched across the face a couple of times, dazing him before he was dropped on a carpeted floor and the two people carrying him left the room he was in, locking the door behind them. After a few moments dedicated to getting back his senses, Nicolas pushed himself up from the ground and took the bag off. He was in Aria's private room.

Baker stood up and limped over to Aria's private bar, if he was going to die, he might as well do it with some Earth made rum and a cigarette.

…

Nicolas sat on the edge of Aria's bed, a broken glass on the floor and a bottle of rum at his side. Cigarette butts surrounded him, black burn marks on the carpeted floor. He looked up as Aria's door opened, admitting the asari, who wrinkled her nose at the state the human had left her room in.

"I thought humans were well mannered. This is no way to treat a friend's room."

"I felt I earned a bit of disrespectful time, seeing as my blood had already ruined the carpet." Nicolas answered sarcastically, pointing where Aria's henchmen had dropped him. After three drinks, he felt he'd lost fear of death and cared little about what Aria had to say.

The asari walked towards Nicolas, the garbage on the floor floating away from her as she approached, "You haven't earned anything. You failed me."

Nicolas raised a finger, "Did not. Waeram is outside the warehouse with a Suns brand on his forehead. No one saw me leave."

Aria tossed her head back in a laugh, "You thought I would send you to kill a Blood Pack batarian to create conflict between them and the Suns? Now that they're working together to get Archangel? Oh, Nicolas, you can't be so _naïve._ "

"Why did you send me to kill him, then?"

Aria sat beside Nicolas, her fingers going up his spine all the way to his neck, where they lingered, causing him goosebumps, "Because, my dear Nicolas, I needed a way to cripple you. So… I ordered a shipment of pink baby powder and asked a couple of newbies to expect you," she cackled, "Now look at you! Your leg's not working and you couldn't chew on marshmallows to save your life!"

Nicolas eyed the asari beside him. She had been sadistic in the past, but this was lightyears ahead of anything she'd done before. Something was wrong, "Why?"

Aria leaned on Nicolas' shoulder, an innocent smile on her lips, "Have you been talking to nasty people, Nicolas?"

"I don't know what you're talking about."

"Have you been talking to people I don't like? Talking to a certain… _turian_?" Nicolas' blood ran cold, Aria continued, "Have you been talking to a certain angel, Nicolas?"

"Aria, what the f-" Nicolas was thrown biotically against a wall before he could finish.

"What, you thought that I had no idea you were going to talk with Archangel once you knew of what Sidonis was up to? Ever since he went to save you at the drugs bust I could see there was some weird loyalty going on. Your days here were counted from that moment and they ran out once you decided to let him know a target was painted on his head, knowing full well it was I who allowed the Suns to coordinate with the Blood Pack and Eclipse. All this time you've been my little amusement pyjack, and betraying their owners isn't a smart move for amusement pyjacks. I can't believe you thought you'd be able to do this behind my back, how stupid are you? You think I don't know what you are, after molding you for a year and a half? Remember that Salarian drug dealer? I got him to start selling in Afterlife so I could see you execute someone. I got you to kill that merc company and that human family as well, just for the hell of it! I _made_ you. I know more about you than you yourself." Aria paced as she spoke, grinning at Nicolas that had opted to lie still, "By the way, Archangel was right. You did have some effect on Omega: you made the population fear me more."

Nicolas glared at Aria as she walked, the garbage on the floor avoiding her as she went. She stopped moving and scratched her head, trying to remember something else to say, "Also, I've gotta say, your mind was interesting when we melded. Not mate material, but interesting nonetheless." She chuckled, "Don't hate me too much after this, though. I'm hardly the first to use you."

Nicolas smiled, showing teeth coated in red. The blood began to trickle down the side of his neck, "Fuck you, Aria."

She grabbed Nicolas' right arm and pushed her thumb into the wound on his face. Bones cracked as they scraped against each other under his skin. Clenching his jaw muscles tight, he kept his screams as low as he could, fighting against Aria as tears streamed down his cheeks and the blood from his mouth pooled on his armour.

"Archangel also used you, ever since I sent you to check that drug bust out."

"He saved… my life." Nicolas panted when Aria let go of his face. She punched him on the unharmed side and a cut appeared on his cheekbone.

"He stood by, letting you do all the work!" Aria stood up, turning Nicolas' face over with her foot inspecting the damage, "Then he just dropped in once the danger was over to act like the big saviour he is."

Baker chose to stay silent. He looked up at Aria, a bored expression on his face, "Alright, so we've proven I've been used. Now what?"

Aria looked bored, she walked over to the bed and grabbed the bottle of rum before tossing it to Baker, "Now I'm gonna go talk with some important people, if Anto can be trusted to know what people are important. Drink the rest of that rum. You've earned it after a year and a half of work. A doctor will be here shortly to wire your jaw shut, then you're going to the other room. Remember that one?"

With that, she spun on her heel and left.

…

Everything was black. Slowly, a white light came from above. She floated closer and closer, and a bubbling noise, like a water boiler started gaining strength. A few moments later, the bubbling was so loud that she could feel it all through her body, and the white light grew, taking almost all of her field of view.

"…wake up! Shepard, Wake up!" a female voice called out her name, but she didn't budge.

All of her skin felt like it was crawling with ants, making it impossible to discern whether she was sitting, standing or lying down. Her eyes were unable to open due to the blinding light and her teeth felt like she had been biting on ice cream for half an hour.

A feeling of water in her lungs drove her to cough but her diaphragm wasn't responding. She tried to open her mouth to gag when a rumbling noise deafened her. She felt the soft fabric of a bed under her shake as she was moved out of balance and fell off the platform she was on. The impact on the floor shook her, jump starting her muscles. She used her arms to lift herself so she was on all fours and she coughed out a blue liquid. She gagged but her stomach was empty and the voice came back, sounding like it was from an intercom.

"Shepard! Get up! This facility is under attack!"

…

Nicolas mapped a dose of adrenaline and metabolizer to a simple hand gesture as he waited. Soon enough, a Salarian opened the door to Aria's room. He had a gun on his thigh and a briefcase in his hand. The door behind him closed and displayed a red hologram, signalling its locked state. Wordlessly, the salarian produced another gun from the briefcase and loaded a dart into it. Nicolas made the hand gesture as the doctor was distracted and waited for the adrenaline to kick in. The doctor took aim and shot, expertly aiming at Nicolas' neck. As his body went limp, the salarian produced a coil of thick steel wire and a contraption that looked like a compact sewing machine.

Grunting, the doctor strained as he threaded the wire into the machine. With a look of disinterest, he walked over to Nicolas' limp body. The human checked if his prosthetics were responding and he felt the vibration of the servos within them. Meeting no resistance, the doctor placed the machine in Baker's mouth, letting it latch onto his lower incisor. Placing his hand on the lower jaw, he started pushing it up so the machine would be able to attach itself to the upper jaw as well, but Nicolas' prosthetic arm shot up to the salarian's neck squeezing hard, not letting even a gasp escape the alien.

With shaky legs, Baker stood, holding onto the salarian. He lost his balance and the two began stumbling towards the far wall, crashing into it before sliding to the floor. Nicolas glared with wide eyes at the Salarian, subdued under the grip of both his hands now. With his prosthetic arm, he punched the alien in the face until he no longer reacted to the beating and he backed off, panting. Grabbing the pistol on his thigh, he pulled on the doctor's arm to bring him up to the door's hologram.

It swooshed open and Nicolas was met with two turian guards. Bringing both hands up, he shot one of the turians in the head at point blank range while yanking off the other's mandible before sprinting for the VIP floor. Without thinking, he jumped off the nearest railing, hoping he would land on the top of a table or bar, where he could roll safely. He was lucky and landed on a turian patron, who softened his fall. Without looking back, Nicolas sprinted towards the exit, doing his best to keep his balance as one of his feet was unresponsive. He pointed his gun straight forward as he got out. To his relief, the krogan bouncer made no effort to stop him, a grim expression on his face.

As fast as his legs could carry him, the human made his way towards Korvos' shop.

* * *

 **Hope you enjoyed it!**

 **If you have any comments, feel free to PM me or leave a review!**

 **So this chapter was extra long! It just kind of wrote itself, and I was considering separating it into two parts, but there was enough grim endings to chapters in this story as it was.**


	11. Chapter 11

**Chapter 11! Enjoy!**

 **Everything in this fanfic is owned by Bioware. No copyright infringement intended.**

* * *

Baker was unsure whether his vision was blurring or his visor was too damaged. The corridor seemed to stretch on forever as he headed for Korvos' store. He took a turn into another long path, then another, then another, until he wasn't sure of where he was anymore. He tried to bring up his omnitool but his right arm was too weak to lift up – it was falling asleep. As his breath drew shallower, he leaned against a wall, his shoulder aching at the pressure so he slid down, leaving trails of blood smeared on the grimy metallic grate.

 _You'll feel much better after a nap._

Propping his right arm on his knee, he opened his omnitool and opened a map of Omega's commercial district. It turned out he went the wrong way, and was now near the docks. Korvos' store was two floors down, just a five minute walk.

 _Let's go after a nap._

Baker shook his head, drunkenly disagreeing with the gravelly voice in his mind. He looked at the clock on his arm… it had only been ten minutes since his last dose of adrenaline. Another one would greatly increase the risk of cardiac arrest, and he didn't want that. He was losing blood as well, but he could no longer focus his eyes on the holographic display, making taking care of himself impossible. His lips were dry as he tried to talk to the VI in his omnitool but the words couldn't make their way out of his mouth.

The cold he felt in his chest eased into warmth as he closed his eyes and went to sleep.

…

Two humans lead a third walking out of Omega's docks towards the commercial district. The residents couldn't help but ogle at the white jumpsuit one of the women was wearing. Word had spread quickly that a Cerberus vessel had come to Omega, but their intentions were still a mystery to the residents.

The woman tailing the group pressed her gauntleted fingers against her eyes, trying to supress a throbbing headache. Scars glowing orange outlined her cheekbones, jaw and forehead and her red hair seemed to sway behind her like heavy smoke. She let go of her eyes to make sure she was still following the other two humans closely when she saw a figure in black armour slumped against a wall.

"Is that a human?" she asked, surprised at how the other two had completely ignored the body.

"Yes, but most certainly dead. Look, there's a hole in his head and the wall behind him is all bloodied up," one of the other humans, a dark skinned man, answered. He barely moved his head to acknowledge the dead human as he walked by and the other woman completely ignored it.

With a thick, earthborn accent, the woman that was leading the group spoke up, "Omega is littered with dead bodies like that one, Shepard. By the time we're back, the vorcha will have probably taken him away. We should focus on retrieving doctor Solus instead."

…

Hal watched as Garrus took aim from his balcony. He had tuned the turian's shields to focus the mass effect fields only in front of him and from his chest up, making him impervious to at least five bullets before he would have to take cover for a recharge. The turian's scope came to rest on a batarian that was attempting to cross the bridge into Garrus' headquarters.

"He's got shields at 70%. Don't miss, Garrus," pleaded Hal as the turian's rifle whirred loading a heavier slug into the mass effect chamber while the small regular chip of tungsten in the chamber was expelled.

"When have I ever missed, Hal?" came the turian's reply as he squeezed the trigger.

The heavy tungsten round flattened against the batarian's shield as it overloaded and let the projectile power through. The flattened blob impacted the flesh and bone, making it explode into shredded meat and a cloud of blood.

Garrus took his eye off the scope and got down to let his shields charge, "After seeing that, I'm sure the mercs will take a little while to start coming again."

Hal was about to answer when an alarm went off in his consciousness. In miliseconds, he evaluated Garrus' situation and spoke, "Garrus, I have to go away for a little."

"Where are you going to go?" the turian asked, alarmed at losing the last thing he could talk to.

"It doesn't matter, I have to go now! I'll be gone three minutes tops!" and with that, Garrus' translator crackled for a second before going silent.

…

As he lay against a grimy wall near the docks, the headphones in Baker's helmet came to life, "Oh no you don't!"

An omnigel structure tied around the human's ribcage contracted, squeezing Baker's still heart. The structure stretched out and contracted again and again, going at a quick rhythm. Baker's eyelids fluttered, but he was still not back.

"Come on, Nicolas! Give me a pulse!"

Baker fell to the ground from his slumped position as his ribcage contracted and stretched. Noises of wheezing and choking filled the corridor as the dead body convulsed on the floor with its own ribcage performing CPR on itself.

"There we go!" Hal exclaimed as an uneven pulse started. He activated the suit's speakers as he charged the defibrillator on the omnigel structure, "Stand back. Stand back. Stand back."

The static charge raced through Nicolas' body and the compressions began again. Hal checked the omnitool's log, "Oh this stupid fuck used adrenaline twelve minutes ago! Let's synthesize isotonic anticoagulant, then."

The compressions continued as a group of Vorcha watched in awe at the human that was dead and alive at the same time. Hal lifted the visor as far as the damaged mechanism permitted to let out the foam that was escaping Nicolas' mouth, thanking his luck that he hadn't thrown up. Hal noted that a minute and a half had passed and Garrus was probably wondering where he'd gone. If the human didn't wake up in a minute, he would have to give up on him and return to the turian.

Finally, Nicolas' lungs fought against the compressions and his eyes shot open as he arched his back, trying to make space for his lungs to take in as much air as they could. Hal shouted into his headphones to help the human come back to his senses, "Nicolas! Nicolas, answer me!"

"I'm up! Holy shit, I'm up! Hal, is that you?"

"It's me, but that doesn't matter, you have to go to Korvos ASAP," Hal said as he got ready to leave again. If Nicolas couldn't make it by himself, there was nothing the AI could do.

Baker used his prosthetic hand to push himself up before clutching the wall to his side, "Ok. Where do I go?"

It's past those Vorcha to the left, then down two levels and straight ahead for a block. You can't miss it, but I can't wake you up again. Just remember to not stop moving."

Nicolas nodded as his headphones crackled and went silent. He took deep breaths all the way to the weapons store he was so familiar with.

…

Baker's ribcage ached as he reached Korvos' store. He could feel two spots on his chest were wet with what he could only guess was blood. That or something had burned through his suit without damaging it, searing his skin. It was hard to know at that point whether Hal's apparition had been an illusion, but one thing was certain: he didn't wake up by himself.

The vorcha's store was open, so Nicolas limped in. Everything was as it always was, but this time the vorcha was talking to a customer. Nicolas hesitated before interrupting. Korvos would surely listen but the patron was a Batarian, and he wouldn't take kindly to a human butting in while he was doing business. It also didn't help that Nicolas was in a terrible state, clearly unfit to fight.

The batarian looked around the store absent-mindedly as Korvos processed his order. Nicolas thought there was something about him that seemed familiar, and then it dawned on him when he noticed the colours of his armour and the tone of his skin. It was Anto.

The batarian's eyes finally came to rest on the armoured human and his four eyes went wide. His hand dashed for the handgun attached to his thigh, but he froze when the cold metallic barrel of a gun came to rest on the back of his own head. Korvos looked past Anto at Nicolas and pulled the trigger.

Anto's head exploded and the metal pellet flattened against the inner wall of the Batarian's shields before the limp corpse collapsed to the floor. Red blood and flesh sprayed out towards the human, coating the front of his armour in bodily goo.

"Korvos could not allow his favourite human to be killed by Aria's ravenous varren," grumbled the vorcha as he holstered his handgun.

"Holy shit, Korvos! Aria's people are gonna come for you now!" Nicolas quickly removed his helmet to be able to see before gagging at the smell of batarian brains, "Why would you do that?"

The vorcha walked around the counter so the human could see him. A tumor stuck out from the alien's stomach and it bobbed a little when Korvos stopped moving. He pointed a clawed finger at it, "Korvos has little to live. Cancerous cells are growing and cannot be removed. Korvos will die from organ failure in days. The human can take what it wants, no matter what Aria wants. The asari is Queen of Omega, but not of this dead Vorcha."

"I'm also dying, Korvos. I have no one else to turn to. I need a doctor."

The vorcha shook its head before walking back around the counter, "Korvos is not a doctor."

Nicolas stumbled closer to the counter, making sure not to trip on Anto, "But you can read manuals real good."

Korvos had been looking down at his tumor, but his eyes shot up to stare into Nicolas', "That, I can do."

…

Korvos set up a workbench in front of Nicolas so the human could work on his own legs as the Vorcha extracted pieces of shrapnel from the human's chest and coated the two burn marks in medigel. He coughed blood to the side to avoid contaminating Baker's wounds as he made a mental note to stop eating, as his stomach seemed to not be able to receive any more food. As the medigel sealed the wounds, Korvos plugged the holes in the human's armour with omnigel and set the manufacturer to print out a couple of plates that had been destroyed beyond repair while Nicolas covered the hole on his visor with omnigel epoxy.

After fixing the circuitry inside the helmet, the human inspected his face on the newly fixed visor. The scar on his cheek had blackened, and parts of the bruise on the side of his head seemed like they weren't temporary. His lips were chapped and scarred or otherwise actively bleeding, but there was nothing that could be done at the time other than applying medigel. He left them as they were since he didn't want to put up with the artificial taste with everything else that was going on.

Korvos had been done for some time and he sat beside the medical bed as the human put on his second fixed leg. A noise from outside caught his attention. It was the jingle that sounded whenever someone came into the store, but this time it came five times: Aria's people had come. Nudging the human, he tilted his head towards the door that would lead to the sales desk. Nicolas seemed to understand, and nodded at the vorcha, unholstering his handgun. With a shake of his head, Korvos eyed the human as it holstered its weapon before pointing to a box near the backdoor that would lead outside into a side-alley. The human walked over silently and came back with the closed box. With one of his long nails, Korvos ripped the box open and took out two blocks of C4. With his omnitool, he flash produced two wires connecting it to the explosives and he set up a detonator program.

Nicolas looked at Korvos create the makeshift bomb before staring at the Vorcha, looking for confirmation that it was what the alien wanted to do. The two made eye contact, and Korvos nodded slowly. His yellow hand with black sharp nails waved the human away towards the back door, and Korvos stood up from his chair, cracking his neck to the sides before walking out into the store, the explosives held behind his back.

…

Nicolas adjusted his helmet, shaking it to check if there was still a loose piece inside. Satisfied with his armour's condition, he regarded the entrance to the sewers he had been standing in front of for the previous fifteen minutes. Hal had sent him a message as soon as he had left Korvos' store saying that Archangel needed help. Instructions for reaching the hideout were attached to the message, detailing the route by which Nicolas could go through the sewers from Gozu district straight to one of the escape routes within Archangel's hideout in the Kima district.

"The suit's airtight, you'll be good down there," he soothed himself as he gripped the metal disc that covered the entrance, pulling it up. Rust clouds puffed up as the disc creaked and snapped out of the position it had been in for the last ten or so years. Running water could be heard from the darkness within, and Nicolas disappeared into the sewers that would lead him to his old friend.

…

He trudged around in the running water, glad that the artificial gravity was oriented in such a way that he could walk normally down the length of Omega's districts, towards the lowest levels where Garrus' hideout was. The trek was uneventful, something Nicolas was grateful for and he stopped to listen when the distant sound of gunshots rang through the metal tunnels. Baker opened his omnitool and checked that he was going in the right direction when he saw the green glow of a jar of bioluminescent goo. As he approached, he made out a shower head jutting out from the wall, and a small handle sticking out at waist height.

"Bingo," Nicolas smiled as he walked up to the shower head to rinse his armour off. As soon as he was done, he twisted the handle and opened the seamless door, exiting the sewers into a dimly lit corridor. The sound of gunfire was clear and loud now, yet still slightly distant. Water vapour wafted from pipes overhead, coating the corridor leading towards the gunfire in a thick mist. Nicolas activated the infrared scope setting on his assault rifle when a message came to his omnitool.

 _Nicolas, you'll run into a tight corridor going down the one you're in. There is a sizeable presence of Blood Pack fighting a small team of Cerberus operatives. Cerberus is an ally for the time being, so once you've established contact with them, do as they say. Archangel needs all the help he can get._

 _Hal._

The human's eye twitched when he read the signature, and a knot formed in his throat remembering when the AI had left him. Raising the scope of his rifle up to his visor, he disappeared into the misty corridor.

…

"Shepard!" Jacob Taylor, a Cerberus operative yelled into his suit's microphone as he walked backwards, stretching his arm out in a motion used to trigger his biotic abilities. His body glowed blue as his teeth chattered and a singularity formed ten meters away from him, lifting a ravenous varren off the ground, "If the Blood Pack keeps sending these little shits out, we'll be overwhelmed."

The helmeted commander fired her hand cannon at the floating animal, blowing its head clean off before taking aim at the flamethrower equipped Vorcha that were charging towards them, "Goddamnit Jacob, if I had known you were gonna chicken out at some varren, I would've brought Solus."

Their helmet's headphones came to life as a salarian voice crackled through, "Human biotics lack range. Cerberus operative would've been useless up here."

Shepard shook her head, she needed to keep her temperament in check, or Jacob would lose morale. The distraction was enough for a krogan to get a head start charging at the human, and when Jane had trained her handcannon on the alien, it was too late. Her weapon was batted away, and the blunt impact of the krogan's head on her chest plate was enough to send her flying. She crashed against a waist-high barrier and toppled over the edge, cracking her helmet on the floor underneath her. Coloured spots filled her vision as Jacob raised a barrier over himself before he started unloading his pistol on the krogan. The krogan, with a flick of its wrist, sent a biotic shockwave towards Jacob, flinging him against a wall as the alien climbed onto the barrier, towering over Shepard. Shepard looked at the krogan as he slowly raised his shotgun to point at her head. Her vision cleared up enough to see the HUD displaying the krogan's shield levels before she closed her eyes tight: _15%._

A dull and slow _tut-tut-tut_ came from behind the krogan, and Shepard opened her eyes to see the alien's shields failing and then its head plate exploding into miniscule shards, followed by a river of blood that pooled on the floor as the alien fell to its knees, staying there immobile for a moment and then toppling forward, missing Shepard by a hair as she rolled to the side.

A distorted voice came through Shepard's headphones as she wiped the blood off her visor, "Who the fuck are you and why are you wearing this armour?"

She frowned when she recognized the supposedly dead human from the docks, "So you're the backup Archangel told us would come?" She raised a hand grumpily for the human to help her up, instead she got the barrel of his assault rifle pointed at her face.

"You didn't answer my question, _Cerberus,_ " that last word was drawn out, thick with suspicion. Nicolas' eyes twitched behind the visor as the woman's voice seemed eerily familiar. The mental image of a crate full of exotic chocolates flashed through his mind.

Baker's head was tilted to the side when the tip of a handgun made impact on his helmet, "Put down your gun, man. We're on the same team and there's more Blood Pack coming," Jacob's voice climbed steadily as his eyes left the unidentified human to assess the new hostiles turning the corridor's corner.

Nicolas looked over his shoulder without moving his assault rifle before the emergency shutters he had activated screeched closed, cutting a vorcha in half as it went down. The shutters rattled as bullets hit it from the other side, but no dents were forming. It would take them a good amount of time to get through. He let his shoulders relax and he turned his head to look at Jacob, his handgun's barrel still resting on the human's cracked visor. There was an awkward silence as Jacob didn't know what to do now that the immediate threat had been shut off.

Jane broke the silence as she grunted and started to get up, ignoring Nicolas' rifle, "I'm Commander Jane Shepard, by the way. This is Jacob Tay-"

Shepard was pinned to the ground as Nicolas' assault rifle was butted into her chest, making her lose her footing. Jacob pressed his handgun against Nicolas' head as he started to glow blue and Jane did as well.

 _She's lying. The fucking bitch is lying. Shepard is dead. We're here to save Garrus' ass, remember that._

"You're _fucking_ lying, you Cerberus piece of shit! Shepard is dead," the distortion applied to Nicolas' voice masked how many times it cracked through that sentence, but Shepard stopped glowing when she noticed how much the assault rifle's barrel was shaking.

She squinted at the human as she raised her hands slowly towards her helmet, disengaging its magnetic seams. Nicolas' head was pushed further to the side as Jacob's gun pressed against his helmet but he didn't notice anything around him as he recognized the chin, then the mouth, then the nose and finally the eyes, _oh, the eyes_ of Jane. He felt cold beads of sweat form all over his back and arm and his breath hitched as he took a step back. He dropped his rifle and let himself fall on his ass on the dead krogan as Shepard stood up, eyeing Nicolas with curiosity and suspicion.

"And who are you?" she asked as she reached over to Nicolas' helmet putting her index finger under his chin to disengage the helmet. With the help of her other hand, she pulled the helmet up and let out a startled laugh, then another as her eyes immediately welled up with tears. She dropped the helmet to the ground as she started to reach for him before hesitating and instead choosing to whisk away the tears that had escaped her eyes. Miranda had told her that it would surely shock her old acquaintances to see her, so she limited herself to saying, "it's you."

Nicolas' face was blank as he looked at Shepard from his makeshift seat. Jacob had lowered his pistol and murmured, "We have to go help Arch-"

"Shut the fuck up," Nicolas interrupted flatly without breaking eye contact with Shepard. He studied every detail on her face. Everything was as he remembered, except for the scars. His mind was racing between the vid-calls with her, Aria's voice-logs, the memory of her touch, and his medical reports. After a moment, he wordlessly commanded his omnitool to administer a dose of adrenaline and picked up his helmet, putting it on swiftly. The distorted voice crackled through his suit's speakers once more, "Like your sidekick said, we have to go help Archangel."

 _Don't trust her. She can't be real. A clone, an android, I don't know what, but she can't be real. Help the turian and then we find out what the fuck is going on._

For the first time, Nicolas completely agreed with the voice.

* * *

 **Hope you enjoyed it!**

 **If you have any comments, feel free to PM me or leave a review!**

 **Finally, the second part of the story is close to ending. There will be a bit more that has to happen before I can close it off though.**


	12. Chapter 12

**Chapter 12!**

* * *

Nicolas activated the radio sync function on his omnitool and grabbed Jacob's left arm. The Cerberus agent tried to pull away but Nicolas' prosthetic squeezed hard, servos humming, immobilizing Jacob for the time the program required to patch into the squad's radio.

Baker could hear the darker man cursing under the crackling of his own helmet's radio as he walked towards the main building where Garrus awaited after letting go. A salarian voice crackled through the open channel, its tone level but the pronunciation quick, like the message had been sped up, "Shepard. In need of assistance. Now."

The human's eyes went wide as he recognized the background buzzing coming from the other side of the radio. He'd forgotten the Suns had recently bought a gunship, of course they would use it against Archangel! Testing his synthetic muscles, he readied himself to sprint, giving the building's map a quick once-over. His legs audibly whirred as the new servos he'd installed settled in. The other two humans had trouble keeping up with Nicolas' pace as they dashed back towards the balcony where Archangel and the salarian awaited.

Taking the main building's stairs in threes, Baker could see the gunship hovering outside the second floor. Random pieces of junk, spent thermal clips and broken decorations were spread everywhere and rolled around as the ship's hovering motors spewed hot streams of air into the house, wreaking havoc on everything that wasn't bolted down. He spotted the salarian that had talked over the radio. He was concentrated, working on something on the floor, but whatever it was, it was covered behind a sofa.

Running over, Baker's fears had been confirmed. Garrus had been shot. Hal's signature crackle came to Nicolas' helmet as he sprinted over, "let the doctor take care of Garrus! He's stable but we need to get rid of the gunship ASAP."

The human didn't need to be told anything else as he crouched beside the doctor, kicking thermal clips towards himself. A wave of satisfaction washed over him as his assault rifle whirred after being expanded; Hal was working his magic again. Taking aim as Shepard and Jacob entered the room, the air was filled with the sound of his rifle's slow and heavy _tut-tut-tut._

The squad of four concentrated their fire on the gunship, its front lighting up as the tungsten slugs made impact and superheated into white sparks. At first it seemed like the ship wouldn't be too much trouble, but a low pitched humming made the squad think again. Shepard pulled Jacob behind cover as she shouted to the rest who still were trying to figure out where the hum was coming from, "the gunship's about to fire! GET DOWN!"

The room was immediately filled with the deafening roar of the gunship's miniguns. Baker remembered vids of old cruise ships on earth's oceans as the guns blared like their horns, shaking his insides as heavy tungsten slugs shredded the furniture and turned the walls to dust. Molten slugs pooled around the structural pillars, now barren of concrete as synthetic foam from the furniture floated in the air and the air itself shone with streams of superheated metal flying by at relativistic speeds.

Finally, the gunship ceased fire to cool down, letting the dust settle. The squad was about to return fire when Shepard shouted, "This is when we get going, people! Grab Garrus and head for the basement!" Jacob and Nicolas ran up to the prone turian and Baker picked him up, assisted by the Cerberus operative's biotics. As they exited the room tailed by Mordin, Shepard reached behind her back and grabbed the grenade launcher, "I'll take care of the gunship."

The ship's weapons started humming again as the miniguns' barrels dimmed from bright red to jet black when a well-aimed rocket hit the cracked cockpit. Smoke billowed from the ship as the miniguns stopped spinning, and as the smoke cleared, a batarian in Blue Suns armour appeared in the cockpit, coughing and waving his arms to blow the smoke away. Racking her grenade launcher, a large hard-plastic shell was expelled smoking as a high pitched beep signalled the launcher was ready to fire once more. A mischievous smile crept across her lips when she saw the batarian's surprised face as she pulled the trigger.

…

Nicolas' stomach knotted up when he noticed the body bags in the house's common area. Ten corpses had been placed in line down the middle of the room. The bags were clean and small objects had been placed on top, covering the zippers. One of them seemed to be vacant from where the body's hip should've been downwards, and the cleanliness of everything suddenly had a much more important meaning. Garrus had _lovingly_ put those bodies there.

Hate for Sidonis started bubbling within Nicolas but he shook it off quickly as Hal talked into his translator, "The gunship has been destroyed, but that surely means we'll be getting another wave of mercs from the bridge. They know Garrus is down."

Baker's suit was muted automatically as he spoke, "So should I stop and defend or keep going for the basement?"

"I've only detected activity in the security shutters of the utility corridor where you came in from and the bridge on this floor. The garage seems to have been abandoned, so I would recommend going there."

"If they're only covering flanks, then the middle is a minefield, Hal," Nicolas uttered as the group huddled at the stairs to go down. Mordin stood at the front, sweeping the way forward as Nicolas walked backwards, led by Jacob who was still using his biotics to aid with Garrus' weight.

Hal waited for a moment before talking again as Shepard re-joined the squad and descended the stairs with Mordin, "That's a good point, but we don't have any options. I'll tell Shepard we have to be careful and cover our tracks."

Baker noticed how Shepard's demeanour relaxed a touch when Hal left his own translator to enter hers. She was silent for a moment and soon she used hand signs to signal the group towards the basement's garage. The place was deserted save for the corpses that Shepard and Jacob had left there earlier. A stolen rapid-transit car sat at the far corner of the garage, bullet holes had riddled the doors and cracked the windows. Mordin tested the door's handle but the opening mechanism had been damaged by a stray bullet, so Shepard pushed the salarian aside before elbowing the cracked glass. It gave immediately and she was able to pull the door open as Nicolas yanked the back door open, placing Garrus in the cargo compartment. The squad piled in and Hal took over the controls, making them zoom out and into the nearest traffic highway.

…

Shepard took the lead as the rest tailed her down Omega's docks towards the Normandy. She made out the boots of a turian close to the Normandy's blast door and drew her gun as Nicolas passed a glowing Garrus to Jacob. He sped up and squeezed Shepard's shoulder before producing a grenade from a thigh pouch. Setting it to "Breach", he scurried silently towards the turian, rounding the airlock's corner and sticking the charge on its chest before the alien could react. A startled _spirits_ was all the alien could mutter as its handgun was wrenched out of his hand by Nicolas' synthetic arm and stuck under his right mandible.

"I don't have time for this, Grizz," Nicolas growled as he pulled Aria's bodyguard away from the airlock, letting the squad in without interruptions.

"You broke Omega's one rule, Jerris. Aria wants blood. If I don't get it for her, someone else will," Grizz raised his hands above his head, his eyes wide and his mandibles trembling as his tone made it clear he didn't want to die.

Nicolas hummed to himself, pressing the handgun into the soft flesh under Grizz's mandible. He opened his omnitool when he heard the Normandy's airlock close with the squad inside, activating the camera function. Pointing it at himself, and making sure that Grizz was in frame, he spoke with a bored voice, "Stop chasing me Aria. I broke your rule and believe me, I'm prepared to fuck you over as many times as necessary. This is my warning to you: let this go before things get-"

Nicolas twisted the gun and pulled the trigger. Grizz's mandible fell to the ground as the turian stumbled back, clutching at his face and screaming in pain. Making sure he was still in frame, Nicolas activated the breach charge, showing clearly how Aria's bodyguard exploded into a cloud of blue guts and blood. When the body parts stopped falling from the ceiling, Nicolas finished talking to the camera, "blown out of proportion."

With that, he sent the video to everyone he knew that worked for Aria and walked towards the Normandy's airlock. The smell of ozone and cleanliness stung his nose as the decontamination process started. The antiseptic mist coated his hair as he took his helmet off. He raised his hand to swipe over his head, letting the droplets wet his hair as the blast-door opened to a dark haired woman.

"Archangel is being cared for. You can leave now."

Nicolas tilted his head to the side, perplexed, "Leave? Lady, I'm here to talk to your boss."

The woman frowned but a feminine voice came from the ship's speakers before she could get another word out, "The commander wants to talk with Mr. Baker. She is waiting at the mess hall."

Raising his eyebrows mockingly at the woman, Baker walked by towards the CIC. He heard a voice he vaguely recognized from behind him, in the cockpit, but he ignored it as he made his way down towards the stairs that would lead to the mess hall. The edges of his vision blurred as he walked briskly towards the Galaxy map. The different size of the Normandy was lost on him, as well as the difference in doors behind the commander's platform. Opening the door on the port side, he was surprised to see Jacob cleaning his equipment on a workbench.

"Where are the stairs?" Nicolas' eyes were drooping as the adrenaline started leaving his body and he slurred his words. Jacob looked around the room perplexed before chuckling.

"This is the SR-2, man. We have service chutes that are technically stairs, but you can get down to the Crew deck with the elevator outside."

Wordlessly, Baker backed out of the armoury, back to the CIC. His heart felt sluggish and heavy and his mind tried to race despite the failing bloodflow as he entered the elevator.

 _She can't be real. She's a clone. She's a robot._

Nicolas shook his head violently as the elevator doors closed. He smacked the side of his head trying to shut up the voice inside as images of the Normandy blowing up played on the inside of his eyelids. The elevator started descending.

 _The Normandy blew up. Shepard is dead. Chakwas drugged you._

Using his prosthetic arm, Nicolas put pressure on the bruise on the side of his head he'd gotten from that time Garrus had to save him. The voice failed to shut up as he slid down the elevator's wall. He cupped his hands around his ears, gnashing his teeth as the voice started shouting.

 _GET OUT OF HERE! SHE WAS TAKEN BY THE COLLECTORS! SHEPARD IS DEAD! SHEPARD IS-_

"Nicolas?"

Baker let out a startled moan when he felt the squeeze of a hand on his shoulder. He jumped out of its grasp with a start as his eyes dashed across Jane's face, trying to find a place to focus. The commander made a worried face before turning around to face a human further down into the mess hall, "Karin, please..."

Nicolas looked at the approaching human and slowly he started recognizing the grey hair, the stress lines around the mouth and the gloved uniform. A simple thought conquered his mind:

 _Fuck no._

Like lightning, he pulled his handgun out of his thigh holster, pointing it at the two people in front of him, making them raise their hands. Shepard started glowing blue. A crackling came to his translator as his finger tightened around the trigger.

"Nicolas, drop the gun. Calm down. Let Chakwas take a look at you. You're in bad shape. Calm down, man, calm down."

Hal's voice brought back a sense of familiarity to the human. The voice in his head seemed to be more easily interrupted as his attention was more taken by the outside world. He noticed the teary eyes of the commander and the wide-eyed concern in Chakwas' face. Looking over her shoulder, he could see the windows into the medbay and remembered Garrus as he saw Mordin dashing around inside.

Hal's tone became soothing as the voice in his mind shut up, "Put the gun down, Nicolas."

Chakwas whispered to Shepard, "I don't want him taking up too much space in the medbay while Dr. Solus is working," She stole a glance at Nicolas, who had let his arm slump to the floor, letting go of the pistol, "I'm sure he just needs rest. I can give him a checkup in the crew quarters and then I should help with Mr. Vakarian."

Shepard pursed her lips and gave a long look at Nicolas. His eyelids were fluttering, surely Hal was talking to him, calming him down. She turned to face Chakwas, "Let's take him up to my floor, I don't want him in the crew quarters."

Chakwas nodded as she stood to press the button that would lead up. She frowned at the exhausted kid, the bruise on the side of his head looked like he hit his head hard. The state he was in clearly showed he wasn't stable. It had been two years but it seemed likely that he never fully recovered. His eyes were bloodshot and his pupils were dilated, maybe he was on drugs or he was abusing epinephrine. It was weird how his arm didn't tremble despite being on the edge of passing out-

"Level one, Captain's Quarters," came a feminine voice from the elevator's speakers.

Jane pulled Nicolas' arm over her shoulder as Chakwas did the same. Shepard could faintly hear Hal in Nicolas' translator as they carried him into her room. His eyes were half closed, but they lazily wandered between the two of them. She didn't know if it was suspicion, disbelief or hate in his stare, but it made a knot form in her stomach. His eyes didn't leave her as they sat him on her bed.

Chakwas adressed Nicolas using a calm, level tone, "I need you without your armour to examine you, Baker."

Nicolas nodded and used his prosthetic arm to begin unclasping the plates on his right side. When he was done, he tried to do the same on his left side, but his right arm was too weak. Shepard undid the clasps on his top as Chakwas helped with the legs. The armour's second layer scratched like Velcro as it peeled off Nicolas' skin. The first layer came off with it, having been weakened by the bullet holes, shrapnel and blood. Chakwas observed with pause at the wounds that were being revealed. The newest ones were infected from the inside, judging by the pale blueish colour permeating through the skin and the green medigel residue. Many old ones had scarred hypertrophically, the red tendrils and circles dotting his chest and back. The arm prosthetic explained how his hand didn't shake, and the connection with his shoulder looked dirty but healthy, once she examined him, he'd have to take a shower.

She knelt in front of Baker and his face changed from neutral to slight anger, or annoyance. She frowned and pursed her lips, as she went over the things she had to look into before going downstairs. Nicolas' lips were bruised and bleeding, but they also looked chapped. His face was pale compared to his shoulders, so he was probably on a low pressure, surely dehydrated.

Without taking her eyes off him, Karin addressed Shepard, "Commander, could you get Mr. Baker a glass of water?"

Without a word, she left for the bathroom. Chakwas then took his right arm and touched the omnitool wristband. An app downloaded his vital signs and his medication history. Her eyebrows were raised in surprise as she read the log, he really tortured his body. She made a mental note to keep him off alcohol at least during the beginning of the mission or his liver would fall off as she shone a light on his eyes and tested the wounds, asking him when it hurt to determine the depth of the infection.

Jane zoned out as the glass filled, a hand unconsciously drifting to the scars on her face. What happened to him during the two years she was dead? When she felt the water overflowing from the glass to her fingers, she cursed quietly and walked back to the two. Karin received the glass and produced a small tube of pills from her pocket and showed it to Nicolas, "These are hydrating pills. They will replenish your electrolytes and stop that headache you're probably having. I am going to take a quick blood sample, if that's alright with you," Nicolas nodded before Karin got a small vial with a strange cap, which she pressed against his skin, drawing a small blob of blood. She tucked the vial into her pocket before continuing. "Now I will go down and check the blood to see if you have anything. I'll also get antibiotics for your infected wounds, which I'll send with someone who isn't occupied. In the meantime, I'd recommend you take one rehydrating pill with the water and take a shower."

With that, Dr. Chakwas stood up and nodded at Jane before leaving. The silence that ensued was palpable. Nicolas used his prosthetic arm to guide the glass to his mouth and he took small sips as Shepard looked him over. He had more scars than she did, it seemed, since his had healed so badly. It was impossible to find words to say, he was so different, so alien. The prosthetic on his arm and his scars were the least of it anyway, what really bothered her were his eyes. They were glassy and bloodshot, and his pupils were dilated to the point there was little of his irises to see. He looked like a drug addict with his wounds, his dirty hair and his twitchy stare. She could tell he wasn't happy to see her. Chakwas seemed to understand since the moment he had a breakdown in the elevator, knowing how to talk to him, but she couldn't even begin to talk.

"Do I have something on my face?"

Jane was startled by Nicolas' gravelly voice, like he'd been screaming his throat off the day before. She shook her head, trying not to meet Baker's eerie stare.

"You look like you've seen better days..." she answered, trying to hide the concern from her tone.

"I have."

Shepard half expected Nicolas to add something else, but the silence had already become uncomfortable for her when she realized nothing more was coming from him. Her eyes wandered to the door, but she didn't want to leave on this note, "How're you feeling?"

Nicolas huffed and chewed for a bit before spitting a piece of tooth into his hand, "A lot better actually. Feeling ready for that shower."

Without another word, he scooted to the other side of the bed and got up, taking the half finished glass with him. The tell-tale crackle of Hal's presence came to Shepard, "He knows about the antidepressants."

Jane shook her head, "It was for his own good. He had to be ok during the mission so he would be able to fend for himself."

"Maybe you should talk about it. He didn't take your death well, and a it's been a long time. Working in Omega hasn't bene good for him either."

She processed that for a bit until she heard the shower turn on inside the bathroom and a knock came to the door. Opening it remotely, Miranda came in with a fresh set of clothes under a tray of warm dinner and a plastic tube with the antibiotics. With a quick nod, she left everything on the desk and turned for the door but she looked over her shoulder before leaving, addressing the commander, "Is he going to come with us to Purgatory?"

"Yes, I think so."

"Should I write up a contract?"

Shepard closed her eyes, a throbbing headache starting. Right now, that was one too many things to have in mind, "I don't know, Miranda. Can we just leave that for tomorrow?"

"I understand," the operative was surprisingly good at hiding her annoyance, Shepard thought as the woman walked out the door, her heels clacking on the floor like she were wearing heavy armour.

"You were saying, Hal?" Jane asked, pushing her fingers lightly against her eyelids.

"I'm just saying he's been through a lot. He's coming down from an adrenaline high, and he's been abusing Sand for a little over six months, so it might be better if you leave him at the Citadel at a rehab centre."

Jane shook her head, "I think I need him here, even if it's not on the ground team at the beginning. What we're doing here is important and he can help."

"Commander, the team you're assembling is already big enough. Nicolas doesn't need this."

Shepard squeezed her hands into fists, anger bubbling in her stomach, "If I want to have the best chance of succeeding I can't have him in some rehab halfway across the galaxy. We can help him here."

Hal's tone became annoyed and snappy, "Maybe you're trying to help yourself more than Nicolas."

"Don't act like you know shit about what's good for him if you let him get into Sand, who-"

"Woah, woah, woah!"

Shepard whirled around to see Nicolas walking from the bathroom door to the desk, grabbing fresh underwear from under the tray, "Whatever you and Hal are on about, can it be when I'm not in the room?"

"H-how did you know?" Jane blinked, her face blank.

"You're not one to talk to yourself, and now that Hal's making a habit of jumping omnitools, it was an easy guess."

Shepard looked as he used his prosthetic hand to grab the antibiotic container and deftly unscrew the cap before taking a pill. He looked a lot better after the shower. His stubble was a couple of days old, and his scars were still there, but the clean seams between his prosthetics and the absence of medigel residue made it easier to not notice the infected wounds.

He sat on the opposite side of the bed silently, looking at his knees, running his tongue along his teeth behind closed lips, thinking of what to say. He opened his mouth before hesitating and then muttering, "I'm not hungry, in case you want the dinner."

Jane looked over her shoulder at Nicolas, looking at the scars on his back, "I'm not hungry either," she paused for a moment, "look, Nicolas-"

"Please, not today, Commander."

"Jane..." Shepard corrected sadly.

"Jane, I'm tired. I want to go to sleep. Where are we going from here?"

"Purgatory. We're picking up a squad member. We should be there in two days. Hopefully Garrus will have healed up by then."

Nicolas pulled the sheets back and got in, curling up on the edge, "Purgatory? How would prison staff help you with whatever you're doing?"

"We're picking up an inmate, and don't you know what we're up to?"

Baker turned over to face Jane, "I don't, but we have the whole of tomorrow for you to tell me," his real arm came out from under the covers to pat on her side of the bed, "I'm pretty sure I'm not contagious, are you going to sleep on the couch?"

"Are you ok with me being here?"

"Your bed, your ship, Jane. Good night."

* * *

 **So that was the end of Life itself is will to power.**

 **There's gonna be a little pause before I post the next part of Nicolas' story. I hope you liked this one enough to be able to wait for what comes up. It's going to be exciting to write with a lot more characters in play, but for the same reason, I have to be extra careful with writing everything well. The next post will be a preview of the next part with it's name so it's easy to find. Until then, thank you so much for reading! I enjoyed this second part so much because I had total creative liberty and I was able to get all the ugly I thought the mass effect universe lacked on text. I get that the darker tone might have been off-putting, but I'm sorry, I couldn't have it any other way.**

 **Thank you again for reading, and I hope you enjoyed Nicolas' adventure as much as I liked writing it.**


	13. Chapter 13: What comes next

**OK, time to break the silence! It's been really hard for me to write lately, with Uni and everything, but now I've gotten the next part of the story going! With regards for how this next part is going to be, I see it as a bit more comedic, since it won't be such a lonely adventure from now, and there will be a lot more "good" characters to write about.**

 **This is just a sneak peek into a bit of the action, I hope you find it enjoyable. The first chapter is already up, and the fic is called "We live in the flicker", hope you like it!**

* * *

"How many mechs does this guy have?" Jane exclaimed as a rocket flew over her cover to land a few meters away. The blast disabled her shields and she grunted as the shockwave dazed her. Before the mech could lay out more suppressive fire, its weapon's own eezo cores warped themselves and the guns were rendered useless. Kasumi materialized on the mech's shoulders and overheated her hand cannon on its neck. When the head was hanging by wires, she pointed her gun into the exposed circuitry and cycled the thermal clip before shooting again. She then jumped towards the cover Shepard was hiding behind, landing just in time to shield herself from the shrapnel the exploding mech blasted in all directions.

"I think that's the last one in this place, or at least Hock has nowhere else to hide another one," Kasumi told Shepard as the two got up to find a way out.

…

A few guards stood outside Hock's mansion. "Do you think the mechs got the fuckers? Hock sent pretty much half of us into the vault."

"I sure as hell hope so, wouldn't want to try shooting at someone who got sent three mechs because nobody else could get them."

The conversation was cut short as the door to the vault behind them blew open, the two metallic panels flying towards them and flinging them off the loading area outside the mansion. Kasumi walked out with her submachine gun raised before turning around to frown at Shepard. The commander shrugged, "What? You were taking too long hacking the door open."

The Master Thief was about to respond but her thoughts were interrupted by the sound of a gunship approaching. ATLAS mechs started marching towards them, accompanied by Eclipse mercenaries as the roar of Hock's gunship's miniguns filled the air. Kasumi engaged her cloak immediately as Shepard blind-fired over her cover. She activated her omnitool to see where she was shooting as she crawled along the concrete walls standing between herself and the endless gunfire, to avoid staying behind cover that was far too deteriorated. Atlas mechs fell one by one, falling victim to Shepard's biotics or Kasumi's surprise attacks.

"Shepard, help me clear a path to the gunship, I can disable its shields permanently!"

Not needing to hear it twice, Shepard pulled the grenade launcher off her back and took aim at the group of mercs standing between her and Hock as bullets ate at her shields. She pulled the trigger as her shields failed and a chip of metal touched her shoulder plate, blowing half of it apart. She was back in cover before the grenade was even able to hit its mark. The smoke and dust the grenade's blast had lifted cleared as Kasumi's invisible figure sprinted through it. The thief's legs whirred almost imperceptibly as synthetic muscles helped her leap ten metres into the air, right on top of the ship. She looked into the cockpit to see the hate in Hock's eyes before the shield systems were overloaded and he spun to shake Kasumi off. Her grip on the canopy was strong but her body was inevitably pulled to the side.

…

Two kilometres away, Garrus opened the blast door of the Kodiak and extended his sniper rifle, having just loaded a Tungsten-Osmium cube into it. The gun whirred as the mechanism shaved off a large piece of the cube to accelerate and the turian took aim. He could clearly see the gunship as Kasumi jumped on it and the ship spun to the side, trying to make her lose her footing. I trying to drop her, Hock had just aligned himself perfectly for Garrus to take a shot. Letting out air through his nostrils, he pulled the trigger and the recoil made him step back, out of breath. The gun's thermal clip was expelled and the system's protested after having fired in an anti-vehicle configuration.

Kasumi raised her eyebrows seeing the cockpit's inside coated in red and the fist sized hole in the canopy. She jumped off onto the platform as the gunship swerved and fell to the ground far below it. Soon a Cerberus Kodiak arrived and the two women jumped in, heading back for the Normandy.


End file.
